A.W.O.L. Dads

[98tls]

Although I believe that biological parenting is the best option (as long as the father is a good one) it is not the only option. I believe if the father is absent then a positive male role model is equally important.

Can run into problems there though as in my case when 7 years old the old lady remarried..........i hated the guy........reality is he was ok but a kid sees it as a replacement for dad which in a lot of cases causes instant friction..............

[u4ea]

wow! very well thought out from an ancient tribe point of veiw..but todays society is rife with antisocialism (maybe if we were allowed to remove a few heads we wouldnt have the problem).A child is just as affected without the mothers presence in one way or another .If I chose to stay with my sons father he in turn would have adopted the trait(lesson)of being a woman beater too...so not even a candidate for shared custody as hes predisposed to violence as was my father..so now I have a well rounded educated, employed teen without the male parental role models in place.I must say he is indeed wanting that male role model in his life and has become a real "bloke" in his own way to get that male influence and bonding.Sadly cola there are a lot of people out there who dont see children as only being lent to us and dont forsee the inevidable damage that awol parenting can cause from their own selfish behaviors..

[riffer]

Good read Col.

But aren't you supposed to be in the gargre putting the bike back together?

Seriously though, the importance of the paternal parental figure is vastly underrated in our modern society.

I'm glad I'm a father who sees all his kids regularly and two of them 100% of the time.

I had to suffer not seeing two of them for a year and it nearly killed me inside.

[soundbeltfarm]

good words colapop,

it funny my parents are still together ( about 60 yrs old)
and my old man took off from us a couple times but always came back he never hit mum or us but was a mans man back in the day.
he was always at the pub till it shut and all that carry on .
but we always went on holidays and he was always there at xmas and when we had school holidays.
and if we needed to be sorted he'd smack our arse.
he is a through and through leaguey and when i switched to rugby he never came watched any of my games which pissed me off.
the older i got the more we didn't get on because we are so alike in that we both had to always have the last say.
but when i moved out at 17 he was always there to give me a hand with anything.
now im older and have kids he always goes on about when we were kids and he says sorry for always being at the pub .
he is probably my best mate now and we always share a laugh and he always wantys the grand kids to stay with them and he takes them white baiting , fishing all sorts.
its funny how time changes people.

[Daffyd]

This thread reminds me of the story of the teen who left home for uni, with the thoughts that his old man was a sandwich or two short of a picnic.
When he came home some years later he was amazed at how much his father had learned while he was away!

[riffer]

Actually, its a quote attributed to Mark Twain:

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned."