The Importance of Fathers

The importance of Fathers isn't something that is often talked about in our society today and honestly, that makes me really sad. Before coming to college and taking the many classes I have focused on children, I never really considered or even thought of what makes having a father around so important. For this post, I googled this topic and found two sources that I think made some really great points in highlighting the importance of fathers. The first one from Psychology Today mentions some differences we can see in children who have present fathers versus those who don't. Even from birth, children who have an involved father are more likely to be emotionally secure, be confident to explore their surroundings, and, as they grow older, have better social connections than those who don't. The page also mentioned how children with involved, caring fathers also have better educational outcomes. Another source I found was focusonthefamily.com. This source mentioned the different parenting style fathers tend to have and having both the mothers and fathers way of parenting is important in the development of a healthy child. Fathers tend to play rougher and also encourage more risk-taking, and the way they play tends to promote more problem-solving and independence in the child.

When I think of my experience with my dad, it's never been negative in any way. When I was really young my dad worked an hour away from home in Toronto. If you know the highway going into Toronto, you know that an hour drive can easily turn into two or three hours, even not during rush hour. I still remember being excited when he was able to make it home for dinner since we never knew when he was going to get home it was always a great surprise. As I grew older we moved around and his job changed a couple times and by the time I was 12, he was working fulltime at home. With him being home all day he was there for almost everything.

Having my dad around all the time definitely made a difference. He was always very involved in everything that we did, he was at every school concert, he drove us to every church event, he coached baseball for my younger brother. He would be working a lot during those times too, there was never not a phone call he had to take or an email he had to write, but he was always there and I think him actually making the effort to be there was always more important to me than if he had to take a phone call during a soccer game. I got to see how hard he worked for everything that we got and you get a different perspective when you get to see your dad work every day rather than him just leaving for the day. I'm really close with my dad, and I appreciate everything that he does for me. One of my favourite things about going home is being able to spend time with my dad, I think part of me got so used to having him around all the time that when I left home I missed that the most.