WITHOUT DAD

Here are some very good reasons on why fathers and children need each other, need contact with each other, need to spend time together, etc.   Basically, give your child the relationship he/she would have had with their father had the marriage/relationship continued.  The child's relationship with their parents has nothing to do with the parents relationship to each other.  Your children deserve that much.

Reprinted with permission from ACFC:

Suicide

"In a study of 146 adolescent friends of 26 adolescent suicide victims, teens living in single-parent families are not only more likely to commit suicide but also more likely to suffer from psychological disorders, when compared to teens living in intact families." Source: David A. Brent, (et. al.) "Post-traumatic Stress Disorders in Peers of Adolescent Suicide Victims:   Predisposing Factors and Phenomenology." Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry 34 (1995): 209-215.

"Fatherless children are at dramatically greater risk of suicide." Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health Statistics, Survey on Child Health, Washington, D.C., 1993.

"Three out of four teenage suicides occur in households where a parent has been absent."
Source: Jean Beth Eshtain, "Family Matters: The Plight of America's Children." The Christian Century (July 1993): 14-21.

"A family structure index - a composite index based on the annual rate of children involved in divorce and the percentage of families with children present that are female-headed - is a strong predictor of suicide among young adult and adolescent white males." Source: Patricia L. McCall and Kenneth C. Land, "Trends in White Male Adolescent, Young-Adult, and Elderly Suicide: Are Ther Common Underlying Structural Factors?"  Social Science Research 23 (1994): 57-81

Many statistical studies have shown that children who grow up absent their fathers are more likely to:

	Fail at school or drop out.
	Experience behavioral or emotional problems requiring psychiatric treatment.
	Engage in early sexual activity.
	Develop drug and alcohol problems.
	Experience violence.
	Commit suicide.
	Be victims of child abuse/neglect.
	Up to 60% of male rapists grew up without fathers. (Life Without Father, Nicholas Davidson)
	Up to 75% of adolescents charged with murder grew up without fathers ("Characteristics of Adolescents Charged with Homicide", Dewey Cornell, Behavioral Sciences and the Law 5)
	Up to 70% of juveniles in state reform institutions grew up without fathers (Family Correlates of Social Skills Deficits in Incarcerated and Nonincarcerated Adolescents, Adolescence 29, M. Eileen Matlock)

If these statistics don't scare you into: 1) allowing your children more access to their father if you are a custodial parent, and 2) doing everything you possibly can to spend more time with your children if you're a non-custodial parent, you're children deserve better than what you are giving them.  Do you think that is callous?  Too bad.  This isn't about what is best for you; it's about them...remember?  Your children's happiness depends on both parents involvement!