Fatherhood is an Institution

Think about it. Would you defend your father? Would your father defend you. The answer is of course. My father fought in World War II to defend all families in the United States. He understood the importance of fatherhood, raised his large family of children working two jobs to feed and protect us. And he was rewarded - by losing custody of his children in divorce. As a father that has also lost "custody" of my children of divorce, I often wonder if things would be this way if my father had fought harder for custody, if he had waged war on the divorce industry, if he had left a different legacy for me and my children and grand children.

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Retrieved from: http://ussharedparenting.com/content/view/5/26/

Parental Alienation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Parental alienation is a social dynamic, generally occurring due to divorce or separation, when a child expresses unjustified hatred or unreasonably strong dislike of one parent, making access by the rejected parent difficult or impossible. These feelings may be influenced by negative comments by the other parent and by the characteristics, such as lack of empathy and warmth, of the rejected parent. The term does not apply in cases of actual child abuse, when the child rejects the abusing parent to protect themselves. Parental alienation is controversial in legal and mental health professions, both generally and in specific situations.[1] Terms related to parental alienation include child alienation, pathological alignments, visitation refusal, pathological alienation, the toxic parent and parental alienation syndrome[2] though the last term is a specific formulation of a medical syndrome proposed by psychiatrist Richard Gardner that is not well accepted.

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Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_alienation

Parental Alienation Disorder and DSM-V

Although parental alienation disorder (PAD) is a serious mental condition affecting many children and their families, it is not an official diagnosis or even mentioned in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This article presents arguments for considering PAD a diagnosis: PAD is a prototypical example of a relational disorder; the phenomenon of PAD is almost universally accepted by mental health professionals; PAD is a valid and reliable construct; adopting criteria for PAD will promote systematic research; adopting criteria will reduce the misuse of the concept of PAD; and adopting criteria will improve the treatment of children with this disorder.

retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01926180802405513

Information Packet: Fatherhood

Federal policies are promoting father involvement in families to improve developmental, academic, and economic outcomes for children. This information packet provides an overview of issues related to fatherhood initiatives for providers and consumers of social services. It includes a fact sheet of statistics about effects of fatherlessness, a summary of policies and legislation, and lists of references and web resources. The innovative Georgia Fatherhood Program also is profiled.

Retrieve packet from: http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/downloads/information_packets/fatherhood-pkt.pdf

Adult Children and Their Fathers: Relationship Changes 20 Years After Parental Divorce

The relationship between children and their divorced fathers is of great concern to researchers, policy makers, and practitioners, as well as to children and their fathers. Although there has been an increase in shared parenting post divorce and paternal custody, it is still the prevailing situation that most post divorce fathers consistently spend less time with their children compared with post divorce mothers.

Charting Parenthood: A Statistical Portrait of Fathers and Mothers in America

Executive Summary

The data also provide important insights into the value men place on family life and childrearing, and on the multiple contributions that fathers can make to the lives of children. These insights suggest that many men have a deep commitment to raising children in the context of marriage, and that substantial percentages of fathers are deeply and regularly involved in play, discipline, and primary caregiving. For example:

Most fathers who live with their children participate regularly in some kind of leisure or play activity with them. While mothers are more likely to do "quiet" activities (reading a book or doing a puzzle, for example), fathers are more likely to play an outdoor game or sports activity. Very high levels of both fathers and mothers report talking at least once a week with their children about their family.
Substantial percentages of fathers who live with their children are engaged in monitoring their children's daily activities and in setting limits on these activities. For example, 61 percent set limits on what television programs their children are allowed to watch.
Men are much more likely than women to believe that two parents are more effective at raising children than one parent alone.
More than one in five young children in two-parent families have their father as the primary caregiver when the mother is at work, attending school, or looking for work.
While 40 percent of children whose fathers live outside the home have no contact with them, the other 60 percent had contact an average of 69 days in the last year.

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Retrieved from: http://fatherhood.hhs.gov/charting02/executive.htm