Father's Day: Why We Need Dads

Every dad is part of the United States Census Bureau's estimated 70.1 million fathers in the country. In 2010, 25.3 million of them were part of married-couple families with children younger than 18. That year there were also 1.8 million single fathers, and 15 percent of single parents were men. 

What do these dads do?

154,000 of them were stay-at-home dads, who remained out of the work force for at least one year primarily so they can care for the family while their wives worked outside the home. Together, those dads cared for 287,000 children.
Source: America’s Families and Living Arrangements

53 percent of children under 6 years old ate breakfast with their dads, and 71 percent of them ate dinner with their dads. 
Source: A Child’s Day: 2006

36 percent of children younger than age 6 had 15 or more outings with their fathers in the previous month.
Source: A Child’s Day: 2006

Dads of children ages 3 to 5 read to their children an average of six times a week.
Source: A Child’s Day: 2006

66 percent of children younger than six were praised three or more times per day by their fathers.
Source: A Child’s Day: 2006

Psychology Today blogger Steven Stosny gives 10 Ways Fathers Model Healthy Relationships for Their Children in his June 17 post. He notes that no matter whether dad lives with his child's mother or not, those children are watching what he does and how he does it.

Dads with good parenting skills can help keep their daughters from engaging in risky sexual behavior, according to a study in the journal Development and Psychopathology, reported on by U.S. News and World Report.

President Barack Obama is committed to being there for his daughters, because he knows how hard it was to grow up without a father. His essay on this topic in People magazine begins like this:

"I grew up without a father around. I have certain memories of him taking me to my first jazz concert and giving me my first basketball as a Christmas present. But he left when I was two years old. 

"And even though my sister and I were lucky enough to be raised by a wonderful mother and caring grandparents, I always felt his absence and wondered what it would have been like if he had been a greater presence in my life. I still do. It is perhaps for this reason that fatherhood is so important to me, and why I've tried so hard to be there for my own children."

Find resources on being a good father and connecting with other dads at fatherhood.gov.