Give Dad a hug today.
In a report released just in time for Father's Day, a Pew Research Center report highlights the changing roles of parents as U.S. marriage rates and traditional family households fall to historic lows.
In the report called "A Tale of Two Fathers," Pew's survey and analysis of government data found that more than one in four fathers - or 27 percent - with kids 18 or younger live away from at least one of their children. That number is more than double the share of fathers who lived apart from their kids in 1960.
A senior Pew researcher who coauthored the report noted fathers who live away from their children are not always absent from their children's lives. The study noted that more than 20 percent of such dads said they saw their children several times a week. Even more - 41 percent - kept in touch regularly through phone calls or e-mail. But, 27 percent of fathers who live away from their children say they didn't see them at all in the past year.
"Overall, we can't say whether kids are better off or not," the researcher said.
Really?
Well, we can emphatically make such a statement.
Children are definitely better off when Dad is in the home. As fathers, we are positioned to be a great influence of good in our children's lives. A father can be defined by a strange mixture of strength and vulnerability, leadership and servanthood, candidly realistic and yet surprisingly optimistic, and possessing an innate ability to love and to be loved beyond measure.
The survey found 57 percent respondents say it is more difficult to be a father today than it was 20 or 30 years ago.
At times, it seems as if society does its best to pull apart a family. And in the current economic climate, families are faced with some tough and heart-breaking decisions. Clearly, leading a family can be a daunting task today.
But no one said being a father was going to be easy. The motivation of a father is that the love expended and the sacrifices made will be well worth it when the child makes his or her own path as a fully functioning adult.
President Barack Obama, whose father left his family when Obama was a small child, said this week: "Father's Day reminds us parents that we have no more solemn obligation than to care for our children. But far too many young people in America grow up without their dads, and our families and communities are challenged as a result."
The role of the father is as important - or more important - than ever in the American family. But that role dictates that the father not only be in the home, but be active in the home.
We celebrate America's fathers today, and we challenge them to step up to be a blessing to their children, their family and their country.