Fathers, Present, Past and Future

I felt I should re-post this in honor of all fathers.

The role of the father has undergone troublesome changes in recent years in the United States. The family unit has become fractured because of these changes. Men fathered children, were head of the household and breadwinner at one time. Our changing society has reversed much of that, bringing big changes to the family unit.

Every religion commands the father to guide and bring up his children correctly. My father didn’t go to church or read God’s word. He believed that if you spare the rod you spoil the child. He kept a razor strop hanging on a hook by the kitchen sink in full view of everyone. It wasn’t just for sharpening the razor but it was not used for spanking very often. There was no attention deficit trouble at our house. Fathers today communicate more with their children instead of using the rod to correct them. That is by far the best policy if it is started at a young age. Talking to them, not yelling at.

Fathers who bring up their children in a church environment usually give their children a better chance at being good citizens. The church is really an extended family and where there is more love shown the results are usually very positive. I think my Dad looked at religion like Woody Guthrie, “Who said, when you go to church everyone sings Stand Up For Jesus,” “When you go to the ballgame they say, “For Christ sake sit down.” My dad didn’t take us to church. We are thankful for aunts and a grandmother who steered us in the direction of the church.

The Wright brothers father had a special family sharing time before the evening meal. When they sat down at the table together, he asked everyone in the family to share something that they learned that day. Sharing meals together with a prayer or without a prayer was the super glue that held American families together in the past. Fathers dropped the ball big time when they let everyone in the family eat where they felt like eating, in front of the television or computer game, instead of everyone sitting at the table together and sharing.

The modern-day father in the U.S. has had to learn to share in doing many things in the home as the mothers took on jobs to help pay for things in our need to have more stuff society. The flip side, there are no fathers, in far too many homes today and our country is paying a terrible price for it. Many families today have become a group of individuals, sort of camped together under the same roof, each doing his own thing, not really communicating with or getting to know each other well.

The very high medical costs today cause some fathers to not make wedding vows with the woman they love and who is having their babies. That is a very poor way for a young family to get started. Not getting married because of health insurance has to be very hard decision for a couple to make and then having to live with it. A healthcare system that is affordable for every citizen could put some strength back in many aspects of our society, especially the family unit.

The role of fathers has changed for the worse and society will have to change for the better if we ever expect to see the role of the father improve. Let us all have hope for the true meaning of Fathers Day in the future.