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Absent father effects on children lit
Theories for single parenting and child development
Absent father effects on children lit
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Talking out of turn in class, throwing things at other students, and awkwardly flirting with every girl: these are the characteristics of the most obnoxious boy in class, the boy the teacher punishes on a daily basis. These are the problem kids that every parent complains about at conferences, but they don’t understand. He hasn’t seen his dad since he left three years ago, he hasn’t had a hug from mom in who knows how long because she works all hours of the day just to keep the lights on. He simply just doesn’t know any other way to act than how he is.
Nowadays many parents are divorced, many kids have step-parents, and many kids may only have one parent. A single mom with kids and an absent dad, sounds like the normal in today’s America. (This
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Abandoned sons often have intense feelings related to their absent fathers, typically in one of two variations. The first is emotional reactivity, characterized by the statement, “I’ll never be like him.” The emotion the son experiences is directly caused by his father’s absence. The son’s reaction leads him to reject the importance of his father…Until the son acknowledges his unfulfilled needs and longing for his father, he can remain in turmoil about himself and his intimate relationships. …show more content…
They in no way deserve this or did anything to cause their situation. “It is they (the innocent victims of deadbeats- the children) who carry the biological heritage of the offending parent and who suffer the effects of poverty, abandonment, and a discontinuity with their personal history.” (Hatcher) The effects of sons growing up without a father are extremely evident. If you know they have a single mom you can almost automatically pick out at least one of the traits that have been mentioned. These boys suffer from any one of these: anxiety, abandonment issues, anger, self-esteem, self-seclusion, poverty, and stress.
A son growing up without a father or father figure can cause different issues for the child throughout their life. As children they may act out in class and show signs of anger. As they grow older and more understanding of the situation the boy might develop anger issues and show signs of the abandonment in their relationships. In adulthood the son may struggle to marry because of fear of being like their father or being abandoned by someone who is supposed to love forever yet again. “Father absence is pathological and severely affects the abandoned son’s capacity for self-esteem and intimacy.”
In the short story The Father by Hugh Garner there is boy who’s father is not involved in his life. This is mostly because he is always drunk. Because of this Johnny, the father’s son, has not really been able to connect with his father. He is never there for Johnny when he needs him and is always embarrassing him. This made me really sad as I cannot imagine living without a loving father. I do not think that anyone should have to live without the care of their father. I can only imagine how sad that Johnny must have felt to not have a good father in his life. It must have been very hard for Johnny to see all of the other scout and their father’s at the banquet, knowing that he would never have a good father-son relationship with his dad. The fact that he did not feel comfortable asking his dad to come to the scouts banquet himself,
A child’s destiny crucially and heavily relies on the parental figures in their lives. Without such beacons of authority children in these broken homes easily feel partial, mislaid and typically turn out to be errant. The novel “Father Cry” by William Wilson, beautifully covers both the ideas of spiritual parental figures and physical parental figures. Analyzing several different subjects such as heartbreak, love, hope and many more, this book is able to holistically cover the general subject of parenthood. This is an amazing book with many things that one can learn from. Many ideas and topics in this book opened my eyes, pushing me to the verge of tears in some parts. That being said, one subject in particular that most impacted me was the
In David Blankenhorn’s book written in 1995, he brings to light what he calls “America’s fundamental problem”: our culture of fatherlessness. Our modern day view of fathers is that they are unnecessary both in society and in the upbringing of a child. Blankenhorn argues the contrary: the only way to solve the multitude of social problems present in America is to address the common denominator, the decline of fathers and the shrinking importance of fatherhood. Blankenhorn’s book is split into three parts: Part I: Fatherlessness, Part II: The Cultural Script and Part III: Fatherhood. In Fatherlessness, he provides the history of fatherhood and includes statistics that help to illustrate the transition of the father from head of the household to being “almost entirely a Sunday institution” (pg. 15).
Fatherless has been one of the most important challenges and epidemics in our generation. The effects of growing up...
For a child, having only one parent is tough but can be understood if that parent is missing due to divorce or death, as bad as those reasons are; yet the psychological effect for the child who is purposely betrayed then abandoned by a parent is devastating and can last a lifetime, affecting every future relationship. In this story, the father is that parent.
The United States is a country that embraces people with disabilities, it welcomes immigrants from other countries with open arms, it provides safe houses for abused women, racism is not tolerated and we constantly seek equal rights for everyone. Yet, there is one group that is constantly pushed and forced to live on the margins of society, the single father. The single father is much different from the “dead beat dad” who makes the baby, then leaves without any sense of responsibility. The single father loves his children, yet because of the stigma of the “dead beat dad”, the single father is marginalized. This paper will prove how the single father is adversely treated by his employer, the judicial system and society in general.
Besides rejection and guilt, children often feel abandoned by the two closest people in their world. It generally leaves scars that are difficult to heal. The child is left trying to understand why these two people cannot stay together and may even personalize the blame because they feel that they are not good enough to bring them back togeth...
...lopment or leading to behavior that is not ordinary for that person. Some adults may even become helpless and totally depend on other people including their own children. Single parents also have to be responsible for inculcating in young minds, good moral values and principles. References Dia, David A. "Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy with a Six-Year-Old Boy with Separation Anxiety Disorder: A Case Study." Health and Social Work 26.2 (2001): 125. Hock, Ellen, and Wilma J. Lutz. "Psychological Meaning of Separation Anxiety in Mothers and Fathers." Journal of Family Psychology 12.1 (1998): 41-55. Stevens, Gwendolyn, and Sheldon Gardner. Separation Anxiety and the Dread of Abandonment in Adult Males. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1994. A. Hussain Tuma, and Jack Maser, eds. Anxiety and the Anxiety Disorders. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1985.
Dr. Haim Ginott, a renowned Psychologist, mentor and a teacher once remarked, “Children are like wet cement; whatever falls on them makes an impression.” Thus, the effects of absent fathers on children may in fact, shape their perception of the world around them. Even though developing a stronger relationship with one parent is an effect of absenteeism fathers, it also comes with the challenges of engaging in early sexual activities, diminished cognitive development and poor school performance, which are effects exhibited by many daughters.
If his father’s behavior continues, it will cause a switch in roles between them two. The son will mature faster, than he should, and it will affect him mentally and emotionally that his father was not there for him as a father but more as someone that he is obligated to
The Family structure has changed significantly in the last fifty years. With higher percentages of marriage ending in divorce, and higher rates of childbearing out of wedlock, single parent families are increasing rapidly. “Seventy percent of all the children will spend all or part of their lives in a single-parent household.” (Dowd) Studies have shown that the children of these families are affected dramatically, both negatively and positively. Women head the majority of single- parent families and as a result, children experience many social problems from growing up without a father. Some of these problems include lack of financial support, and various emotional problems by not having a father around, which may contribute to problems later in life. At the same time, children of single-parent homes become more independent because they learn to take care of themselves, and rely on others to do things for them.
The role of the father, a male figure in a child’s life is a very crucial role that has been diminishing over the years. An absent father can be defined in two ways; the father is physically not present, or the father is physically present, but emotionally present. To an adolescent, a father is an idolized figure, someone they look up to (Feud, 1921), thus when such a figure is an absent one, it can and will negatively affect a child’s development. Many of the problems we face in society today, such as crime and delinquency, poor academic achievement, divorce, drug use, early pregnancy and sexual activity can be attributed to fathers being absent during adolescent development (Popenoe, 1996; Whitehead, 1993). The percentage of adolescents growing up fatherless has risen from 17% to 36% in just three decades between 1960 and 1990 (Popenoe, 1996). Dr. Popenoe estimates this number will increase to approximately 50% by the turn of the century (Popenoe, 1996). The US Census Bureau reported out of population of 24 million children, 1 out 3 live in a home without a father (US Census Bureau, 2009).
When someone thinks about the definition of a father, he or she thinks about the support, care, love, and knowledge a father gives to his offspring. Most people automatically believe that biological fathers, along with the mothers, raise their children. However, that is not always the case. There are many children across the world who are raised without their father. These children lack a father figure. People do not realize how detrimental the lack of a father figure can be to the child, both mentally and emotionally. Enrolling boys between the ages of 5 to 16 without father figures in programs, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, that involve building a relationship with someone who can serve as a role model is essential to prevent males from depression, difficulty in expressing emotions, and other consequences of having an absent father figure.
The role of a father in his child’s life extends past the knowledge of far too many, and can oftentimes be eclipsed by the role of the mother. Although the mother’s role is essential and greatly valued in a child’s life and development, the father plays a significant role as well. No mother can fill the father’s place in a child’s heart, for fathers nurture and play differently than a mother. Several studies show that an attentive and highly involved father is critical, especially in the early stages of a child’s life. The absence of a father during this stage can lead to “impaired social and behavioral abilities in adults” (Robert, 2013).
Single Parent Struggle For many years, children growing up in a single parent family have been viewed as different. Being raised by only one parent seems impossible to many yet over the decades it has become more prevalent. In today’s society many children have grown up to become emotionally stable and successful whether they had one or two parents to show them the rocky path that life bestows upon all human beings. The problem lies in the difference of children raised by single parents versus children raised by both a mother and a father.