Fathers and Finances

This week we are going to talk about fathers. I love my father. He is my example and my hero. I really look up to him. Not everybody has been blessed with a father as wonderful as mine, and I know I have many friends who really dislike their fathers and think they would be better off without them. The truth is that fathers are an important part of making a family function. There are a lot of devastating statistics that are part of growing up without a father. Below are some interesting statistics found from the National Fatherhood Initiative website.

            (Click here to see it bigger)

https://www.fatherhood.org/father-absence-statistic

These statistics can be devastating, but it can also help us to know what is really going on in the world and help us strive to be better people.

Knowing these things can help us know how to improve. If a person was raised with a good father, then it will help a boy to know what kind of man he should be, and it will help the girl know what kind of man she should date and marry. If a person did not have a good father then it will help a boy to know how his father affected him and he will know what not to do, as well as for a girl she can look to her father and know what kind of man she does not want to have in her life. If a person was raised without a father in the home then this information can help them know what they need to look for. For a boy he will know the kind of damage it can cause for him to not be there for his children, and for a girl it will help her to know where her priorities need to be so that she can know the effects of her children not having a father in the home will have. Some will say, “Well, I didn’t have a father growing up, and I turned out fine.” There is no room for growth with that kind of mentality and even if you did grow up just fine, you can still provide a better life for your children.

“The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.”

Another reason that fathers are important is so that there is someone to make money so the mother can stay home and take care of her children. Some of you might think that this is sexist, but this the way that the Lord has designed for us to raise our families. To see this in a further light we can use The Family: A Proclamation to the World.

This declaration states:

“By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners” (The Family: A Proclamation to the World).

Circumstances are different for each family. Sometimes a mother and father will both need to work. That is sometimes what we think. There was an interesting study done where a couple tracked how much they would make together. For their yearly salary he would make $42,000 and she would make $22,000. Together they would only make $40,500 a year. All of their expenses were going to having to pay for child care, transportation, food for their lunch, and new clothes for their professional jobs. This statistic is shocking. People usually think that with two working parents they would make more of an income, but it usually happens where they are not making as much as compared to if it was a one-income household.

Another thing to consider is that the father works a full-time job and so does the mother. That usually will include 58 hours per week not being with their family. This would be 40 hours of work, but the other 18 hours would include getting ready for work and also travel time. The man has to do that because a family needs money, but when the wife does it as well, it detracts a lot of time away from her children and they are receiving outside influences and have somebody else raising their children.

I am grateful for my father and that he has always been a hard-working man. He has always provided for my mother, my siblings, and I. I know what kind of man that I want because the example that my father has set for me.

Here are some other interesting articles to read:

http://fathers.com/statistics-and-research/the-consequences-of-fatherlessness/

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/06/18/533062607/poverty-dropouts-pregnancy-suicide-what-the-numbers-say-about-fatherless-kids

https://www.dennisprager.com/does-a-full-time-homemaker-swap-her-mind-for-a-mop/