Fathers' benefits in dreams and ambitions changing with recession

NATCHITOCHES, LOUISIANA - Carol Forsloff - "I
hardly knew my father.  He was gone most of the time.  Besides my
parents were divorced, and he wasn't there for me,"relates the story of  mid-life adults, but today more dads are home, with different roles in this recession.



These
are the quotes we hear from movie stars, on talk show programs and idle
conversations among adults, but the father's role has been found to be
significant in what we think, who we are now, and who we become.   But as traditional concepts change, scientists are beginning
to learn how the new father might impact the family in the future.

More fathers are staying home,
as a result of the recession, which may change the interaction and
roles of the father in the family even more than they have in recent
years.

New research reflects fathers have a different role to
play in families, not just the breadwinner who issued edicts as they
passed through the house on their way to some job somewhere.

These
days fathers are shown to be involved with families, to help with
housework, to change diapers, and even stay home and take care of
children while wives work.  They have new and evolving roles in families.

Still the memories of fathers impact how we feel about our own lives, psychologists say.  The way they felt about us helps form our self-conceptas
much or more than mothers.  It was first thought mothers were the
critical personality in a child's life for that building of one's belief
in oneself, the role of fathers has been assessed as particularly
significant.

The absent father, on the other hand, has been shown
to have negative effects as well, so the proponents of the father's
involvement maintain how critical it is for people to focus on the
father in their focus on the family.  Even films about "boys in the 'hood" reflect this concern.

In small communities like Natchitoches, Louisiana where families tend to be close and supportive, as is the Southern tradition in most ways, the impact of the father is changing also, as the recession brings more fathers staying close to home.  But fathers in the South remain of the traditional type, even as involvement changes, so traditional values continue to be maintained.

The dreams of my father may be Obama's mantra,
but research say our dreams, our ambitions and much of our personality
comes from that father concept, sung about, so many years ago, and
reflected in what is said about the fathers of today who are more
involved with the raising of their children than their fathers were in

the past.  To that extent the fathers being home in this recession may have its rewards not just now but in the future ambitions and life of  the nation's children.