Fathers & Finances

    The meaning of fatherhood has changed drastically in recent decades, its meaning and positive influence appear to be diminishing. The state of being a father branches off in many directions. However, the main idea of fatherhood is to take on responsibilities related to nurturing a younger generation, preparing it to lead the future of an entire society.

    Stephen Baskerville, Ph.D., professor of political science, and author of “Is There Really a Fatherhood Crisis” argued that restoring the constructive characteristics of fatherhood is the solution to social ills. Major and frequent social behaviors have been discovered to have a direct relationship with fatherless children, such as “violent crime, drug and alcohol abuse, unwed pregnancy, suicide, and psychological disorders” (485). Therefore, a present and caregiving father has a critical role in our world.

    Governmental policies and projects like Save Our Children, Child Support, and the 1998 Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act demonstrated how serious the circumstances have gotten. The law is becoming an influential reason for better parenting than simple and pure human moral ethics. 

    Throughout most of our history, families had seemingly equal work, life, and family balance. Then around the industrial revolution, they began to differ exponentially over the years. Families were not a single workforce anymore, rather each person had to live in a specialized role. Fathers left their homes to go to work for the majority of their daily time, while mothers were homemakers. Thus, the time that could have been used to form closer family relationships was taken away and is currently perceived as the norm. Economic products, making money, have come to show increasing evidence that it does not equal household production because it does not offer the opportunities to build up families substantially.

    Work is an essential matter because the money made from it helps sustain families and raise children with greater living standards and a better social environment, but it is not everything. Many times over, when comparing high-income house households to lower ones, it is observable that both can still have meaningful, close, and positive family relationships.

    After the birth of a child, many households normally downsize to a single income for the next coming years. Nonetheless, Marvin J. Ashton in “One For The Money” discloses that the main factor in declining home welfare is “not the lack of money, but rather it is the mismanagement of such”. He shared a number of suggestions on how to correctly address money issues and how to prevent them. He made an intriguing case about five main points that I liked: managing money before it manages you, learning self-discipline and self-restraint, use of a budget, teaching families early about the meaning of work and earning, and the spiritual aspect of things.

    First, being able to discern between spending money on a family's wants and needs and writing it all down will make the analysis of such things much easier. Second, the skill and ability to control oneself is a worthwhile characteristic to pursue and master, often resulting in better long-term life-changing decisions. Then, visualizing how much to spend on a given period of time greatly assists in keeping things within the projected, planned, and prepared for expenditures. Finally, when family members learn the value of work early, it has proven to be tremendously beneficial on many numerous occasions, especially when kids grow up and are able to teach it to their own families. Paying a tithe is kind of its own thing because it gets into the religious aspects of money. However, having faith is part of the process in each of the previous points too. 

    In conclusion, fatherhood is much more than simply becoming a father of a child. It's about providing homes in which children can grow up to become someone who is able to build up their society and upon the things they have been taught. The financial relationship with fatherhood has played a significant role in making the above statement possible. Therefore, it must be taken care of seriously, unanimously with the spouse, and taught to the children early so that they become able to handle it as well in their due time.