Title: The Important Role of Dad | HuffPost Life
Headings: The Important Role of Dad
The Important Role of Dad
While almost any man can father a child, there is so much more to the important role of being dad in a child's life. Let's look atfather is, and why he is so important.
How fathers influence our relationships.
Raise the kind of person you'd like to know
Changing family roles.
Thanks, Dad.

Content: What is important is that he is involved. The emergence of women into the job market has forever changed how society views the traditional roles of fathers and mothers. Feminism and financial power has shifted classic parenting trends, and today approximately 60 percent of women work. Add to that, the shift in marriage, divorce, lowered birth rates, and family structures of all types, and you can see the emergence of a softening and changing of traditional parenting roles. This transition in economics, urbanization, and sexual roles has led to more opened, flexible, and undefined functions for fathers. A recent study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), indicates that dads are more engaged in caretaking than ever before. The reasons for this are varied, but they include: mothers working more hours and receiving higher salaries, fathers working less, more psychological consciousness, coping skills, mental illness intervention, self-worth issues, intimacy in marriage, social connection, and better role modeling for children. Further, children who are well-bonded and loved by involved fathers, tend to have less behavioral problems, and are somewhat inoculated against alcohol and drug abuse. Yet when fathers are less engaged, children are more likely to drop out of school earlier, and to exhibit more problems in behavior and substance abuse.