100th Anniversary of Fathers Day by Council on Contemporary Families

Too late, I came across these comments to mark the 100th Anniversary of Fathers Day from the Council on Contemporary Families. Fathers Day was 1st held on June 19, 1910 in Spokane WA - and as it mentions:

Unlike Mother's Day, politicians didn't immediately jump on the bandwagon.  In fact, the holiday was met with mockery in its early years. Not until 1972 did President Richard M. Nixon sign the holiday into law. 

Here are some of the Facts

1. There are 30.2 million fathers living with children under 18. Eighty-five percent of these men live with their biological children only, 11 percent live with stepchildren and 4 percent live with adopted children.
2. Almost one-quarter (24 percent) of the nation's 11.2 million preschool-age children with a working mom are regularly cared for by dad during mom's working hours. An estimated 158,000 men are stay-at-home dads whose wives support the family financially.
3. Fathers have more than tripled the time they spend in child care since the 1960s.
4. More than 24 million children live apart from their biological fathers. That is 1 out of every 3 (33 percent) children in America - three times the proportion (11 percent) of children who lived in absent-father homes in 1960.
5. Another 2 million children live without a mother in the home. In 2009, there were 1.7 million single fathers in the United States.  This amounts to 15 percent of all single parents. About half were divorced, 29 percent never married, 18 percent separated, and 5 percent widowed.
6. More than 250,000 children aged 18 and younger are being raised by two parents of the same sex.
7. Children whose fathers are positively involved with them have fewer behavior problems, higher cognitive development, greater maturity and a lower likelihood of drug and alcohol abuse than children whose fathers have only fair to poor relationships with them. Also, Fathers themselves benefit from being involved with their children and mothers tend to be less depressed when fathers have relationships with the children.  
8. It doesn't matter whether dad is a "biological" dad or whether he lives in the same home as his child: social support from dad is protective for children.   Adolescents with close emotional ties to both a stepfather and a nonresident biological father have better health outcomes than teens who are close to only one dad.
9. In Heterosexual Families, the Single Most Important Predictor of Whether Fathers Are Actively Involved with their Children is the Quality of the Father's Relationship with the Mother.
10. Successful programs do not focus on fathers as income providers but on helping men have relationships with their children that are more positive than their fathers had with them. Key components of this involve helping men find  ways to relate better to their children, especially how to discipline effectively but not harshly, and how to communicate better with their children's mother.

Reference: Unconventional Wisdom Vol. 3 April 2010

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