Dads matter - keeping fathers involved with their children.

[Rob]

Hey everyone,

The following is some interesting information sent to us by one of our affiliates. I thought those of you who have children might find this helpful! The video linked at the end provides some tips about keeping fathers involved.

Kids enjoy time with dads but dads feel left out of their child’s upbringing, new survey reveals

National Dads Matter Week (December 6th-12th) aims to raise awareness of the important role dads play in the upbringing and education of their children. To coincide with this Parentchannel.tv joined up with Parenting UK to conduct a national study among 2,000 British parents which looked at the role of dads in their child’s upbringing.

The findings revealed the importance of dads in their child’s upbringing, and the positive self perception as a role model for their children:

• 73.3 per cent of parents said dads were very or extremely important to their child’s development
• 87.17 per cent of dads interviewed felt they were a good role model for their children and the majority (74 per cent) of parents thoughts dads were equally important to their sons as well as daughters

The research revealed that when it came to the level of involvement in their child’s upbringing dads still feel marginalised:

• Nearly 20 per cent (19.62) of dads feel left out of their child’s upbringing whilst 62 per cent of parents thought dads could be more involved with their children

When it came to which parent children enjoy spending more time with, the research showed that, whilst kids may be spending less time with their dad, they enjoy the time with dad and want more time with them:

• The majority of parents (32.85 per cent) said their child spends between 2-4 hours a day with their dad
• 70.54 per cent of respondents thought children spend the most time with mum
• 37.10 per cent of respondents believed their children enjoy spending more time with their mum whilst 34 per cent felt their child enjoyed spending more time with their dad

Jacqueline Harding at Parentchannel.tv has suggested a number of things which families can do as part of National Dads Matter Week:

• try to spend twice the amount of time your normally do with your children this week
• organise a special Dads and Kids day at the weekend (it doesn’t have to be expensive, you can just go to the park, go on a bikeride, have a film night – just doing something together is good)
• try changing your routine around a bit, if you don’t normally do bedtime stories, make it your turn

Jacqueline Harding at Parentchannel.tv said:
"Dads clearly matter to the upbringing and education of their children; and their role is equally important to the upbringing of both sons and daughters.

"The survey findings indicate that dads play a vital role in their child’s development and kids enjoy their time with dad roughly as much as they enjoy their time with mum.

"As part of National Dads Matter Week we hope more families recognise the good dads can bring and do more to make them feel more involved in their child’s upbringing and our new video gives advice on this. We want to encourage Dads to sign up to spending more time with their kids this week!"

http://www.parentchannel.tv/video/why-dads-matter-0

[Rainbow Dash]

Thank you for this. The amount of women I've met who don't allow the father to see their children is unbelievable :/ My sister's boyfriend has a daughter with his ex girlfriend and she's playing with the little girl like a carrot on a stick It annoys me. Hopefully this will help a few dads out there.

[Nicolette]

This is awesome! I don't know where my little guy would be without his daddy, he just adores him. There's lots of guys out there (ones that I know that are married with kids) who still think its the mom who should play the major roll and take care of all the feedings, diapers, and what not but that just isn't how it should be!.

[Quartet]

My boyfriend has a daughter, his mom was very much the type of mother that would only let him see her when things were "perfect" between the two of them. I.E. when he was friendly, nice, and gave into her every word. If he disliked something she said, or told her he didn't see her as a friend, or that he didn't care about her, just their daughter, she wouldn't let him see his kid.

Thanks for this post, it means a lot to read the facts.

[Imagine]

Thanks for this Rob

[Jocelyn.]

I have never felt so lucky to have a father to my child that is so active and involved in his life

[Elfs Mummy]

I would love for sperm doner to take an interest however his abuse towards me means im never allowing him near my little girl

[LucyLouWho]

My son loves his daddy so much and I'm so glad that he has a father in his life! Thanks, Rob.

[.Brittany.]

My dad means the world to me.

[Tara.]

Thanks Rob.