Washington Times reports that fathers are disappearing across America
Washington Times reported on Christmas that fathers are disappearing from households across America. Reporter Luke Rosiak interviewed a single mom from the impoverished Southeast Washington area and an ex-felon father whose domestic role was unclear to help illustrate interpretations of the 2010 US Census. (Stats dealing with income are from the 2011 American Community Survey.)
In every state, the portion of families where children have two parents, rather than one, has dropped significantly over the past decade. Even as the country added 160,000 families with children, the number of two-parent households decreased by 1.2 million. Fifteen million U.S. children, or 1 in 3, live without a father, and nearly 5 million live without a mother. In 1960, just 11 percent of American children lived in homes without fathers.
America is awash in poverty, crime, drugs and other problems, but more than perhaps anything else, it all comes down to this, said Vincent DiCaro, vice president of the National Fatherhood Initiative: Deal with absent fathers, and the rest follows.
Citing only three sources to address a purported national trend was not the main reason it blew up on social media and by liberal-hating, progressive-denouncing, welfare-state-blaming commentors. The interpretation of the data included racial divides “In all but 11 states, most black children do not live with both parents. In every state, 7 in 10 white children do.”; racially geographic divides “The largest geographic area of sustained fatherlessness contains the rural, largely black poor…”; and the poor, who, according to DiCaro, can have little purpose: “When you have very little going for you in your life, having children can give purpose to it.”
The focus on absent poor fathers prompted Rosiak and the Times to follow up two days later with “Missing dads is a problem not only in poor homes”, which opens with the following:
The inner cities, where only 1 in 10 black children live with both parents, and the wealthy suburbs, where many fathers spend more than 60 hours a week on the job, have more in common than meets the eye, family advocates and faith leaders said.
They made the comments Thursday after The Washington Times published an analysis this week of U.S. census data that provoked concern for children from widely disparate camps.
og. Couple of things: First, fatherlessness statistically involves more sub-optimal outcomes, crime, drugs, sexual promiscuity, than an intact family. It is true across all SES and races and other divisions of the population. Thus, any group with a high percentage of fatherless kids is going to have a high rate of sub-optimal results. In “black thing”, I was referring to your description of the Vietham war and the incorrect implication that blacks suffered disproportionate casualties. Since they didn’t, the war didn’t make a difference between them and whites. Has to be something else. The litany of slavery and suchlike is… Read more »
@Aubrey:I am not saying it’s a black thing,though honestly i am not sure what you mean by that.However,your focus seems to suggest that you think fatherlessness is a determinate in whether children in black homes will be raised properly.Single parenthood doesn’t guarantee that children will be raised any better or worse than a two parent home.I work work the kids you are talking about and whether they make it is determined mostly by how that child is raised. I am a single father and my children are doing quite well. Secondarily,African American men have only legally been able to be… Read more »
@Aubrey:I am not saying it’s a black thing,though honestly i am not sure what you mean by that.However,your focus seems to suggest that you think fatherlessness is a determinate in whether children in black homes will be raised properly.Single parenthood doesn’t guarantee that children will be raised any better or worse than a two parent home.I work work the kids you are talking about and whether they make it is determined mostly by how that child is raised. I am a single father and my children are doing quite well. Secondarily,African American men have only legally been able to be… Read more »
We ran this piece on possible reasons for the disappearing dad in September 2012; https://goodmenproject.com/families/the-crisis-of-the-disappearing-dad-the-hidden-reasons-men-leave-their-families/
LoL. Men ‘leave’ their families.
That’s a very interesting interpretation of what’s happening in the real world…
Tom B. But pointing to a supposedly discreditable source, like faux snooze, means you don’t have to entertain the subject. Handy, when the subject could be uncomfortable. Old technique. However, to discuss this means noticing a difference in the issue between ethnic groups. Leading to a difference in sub-optimal outcomes between ethnic groups which can’t be blamed on racism or capitalism or something. To question never questioning any kind of sex, presuming both partners are consenting, or at least putting up with it. To actually value traditional males as useful. Man, this is giving me the shivers. faux snooze. Yeah,… Read more »
At the GMP we’ve read article after article and comment after comment that address fatherless kids and the affects that it’s had on kids. C’mon, is there any doubt that too many kids don’t have dads? Is there any doubt that fatherlessness has had a negative affect on kids? It’s funny how some people will attempt to discredit information because it comes from a conservative Christian group yet totally ignores the fact that the liberal media does the same thing? I don’t need Focus on the Family to tell me that which I already know and see.
The problem exists. However, citing a profoundly dishonest and disreputable source does not help establish its existence.
There are real sources and there are bogus ones… even when the story itself is true. This article starts out on the wrong foot by citing a notorious house organ of lies and distortions.
Thank God someone finally used that _American Gothic_ painting correctly. It’s a painting of a man and his DAUGHTER, not a man and his wife. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen people assume that she’s his wife.
This is an interesting story… if true. Has it been reported by any REAL newspapers with a shred of credibility?
Copy.
Suppose it were reported by real newspapers. What would change in your view?
Right. Thought so.
And, yes, the numbers of fatherless kids is pretty well known, sometimes even from real newspapers.
Right. Thought so.
Yes, it would. The disappearance of fathers is an actual problem, and I’d like to know how widespread it is, from a reputable news source.
You see, I try to evaluate issues based on facts, something the Washington Times has repeatedly demonstrated it cannot (or will not) provide. You may assume everyone’s as much of a fact-ignoring ideologue as you are, but that doesn’t make it true.
Copy.
The problem with the Times article is it’s old news. I guess their investigative reporting was all about looking at old news.
The stats are old news, except they’re probably getting worse.
Old news, copy. Pointing to the “rag” doesn’t help. Everybody knows this stuff and has for years.
I read the article published in the Washington Times to get their full story. Not to my surprise I found that the criticism of dad’s was leveled by Glenn T. Stanton, director of family formation studies at Focus on the Family. Focus on the Family is a very conservative Christian based organization which ‘provides relevant Christian advice on marriage, parenting and other topics’ according to it’s website. The Washington Times is a right wing rag started by Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon and has a very conservative stance. My point is that facts can be mad to say whatever… Read more »
Unfortunately, Mike, your comment makes the most sense out of an article that seemed biased from the start, especially with the original limited sources cast in an unflattering light.
Mike. Does the fact that the Washington Times did the story discredit the stat that about 70% of births in the black community–only slightly less in the hispanic community–are out of wedlock and the kids raised without a father? I mean, that’s either true or it isn’t, and the fact that a conservative rag printed it doesn’t change the truth of it. Does it? Does the source of the artticle ameliorate the results of growing up without a father? Social pathologies track pretty much from one ethnic group to another, across all SES, with fatherlessness. The contradiction between fathers spending… Read more »
I never implied that the stat wasn’t accurate, my problem was with the spin. Fatherlessness is an epidemic that kids are suffering from and by extension we all suffer with. Past that is the bad press that all men seem to be getting. The Atlantic has run front page articles asking ‘Where are the Men?’, ‘Why Me Marry?’ and ‘Are Father’s Necessary?’ I have seen absolutely no front page articles with any rebuttals by men. Why is that? Do we have nothing to say about ourselves that might shore us up and give us hope? I haven’t seen it and… Read more »
@ Richard Aubrey “did the story discredit the stat that about 70% of births in the black community–only slightly less in the hispanic community–are out of wedlock and the kids raised without a father?” Just because a birth is out of wedlock doesn’t mean that a child is raised without a father. Just because a child was born in a marriage doesn’t mean they have an involved father and just because they don’t have an involved father, doesn’t mean that it’s the father’s fault. Marriages can end in divorce and vindictive women can falsely accuse men of child abuse or… Read more »
John.
All the “just because” you mention is true. Are true. The result is huge numbers of kids growing up without a father. We need more just-becauses. Way too short on those puppies.
@Aubrey: Mr. Aubrey I welcome the opportunity to enlighten you,if that is at all possible. Let’s look at the accumulative impact of war on the ability of African American men to be fathers or just productive citizens.Hell,we know that war has devastating affects on men and their families.This was especially true of Viet Nam.We also that the US is notoriously bad at taking care of it’s vets.African American men were far and away the highest percentage of soldiers on the frontline in Viet Nam.My brother,who was playing baseball for the Giants when he was drafted,was one of those men. He… Read more »
ogwriter. Allow me to enlighten you. Casualties in Vietnam among blacks were to within one tenth of one percent of their proportion in the US population. I was involved with a faith-based social justice group some years later when the figures were figured out whose disappointment at the results was palpable. The “racist war” theme was so valuable they hated to give it up. But it worked for them when it had to. The first line units to go to VN were Airborne and Marines, both volunteer units, and were about half black in the rifle battalions. Black casualties were… Read more »
I was primary care of my son for 10 years. My ex exaggerated and lied in hopes to gain access to our son. She was hoping to gain joint custody. The parenting evaluator only talked to two of my five references and said they were in cohorts. Needless to say they decided that I was lying and never raised my son. She was awarded full custody. I am required to ask her if I take him to any sporting or performance event. Parenting evaluator also stated that any sports or interests that he shows in what I do needs to… Read more »
Problem with this is that the grossly disproportionate number of single, never-married moms in the black community is off limits to discussion. It would be racist and, besides, all traditionalist and stuff, probably patriarchal, to remark on the issue. When my kids were playing HS ball, we went to some games at a school pretty much all black. Two or three were parents’ night there. It was pathetic. The football team had maybe three two-parent families, the basketball team none. The cheerleader squad was down by half at the end of the football season on account of pregnancy. But we… Read more »
“Fifteen million U.S. children, or 1 in 3, live without a father, and nearly 5 million live without a mother.”
So about 1 in 9 or maybe 1 in 10 children live without a mother. I don’t know what the data is for 1960s mothers. Maybe it’s the same 10 or 11%, but it could also be the changing nature of families. If 50% of marriages end in divorce, if women are choosing sperm donors, if people are choosing co-parenting over marriage, it doesn’t mean that the involvement of fathers has lessened. It means that the family structure has changed.
Great points, John. I’d like to see that addressed in interpretations of the data. What about same-sex parents, what about single-mother families that never intended to be traditional families? I’d love to study the source data and see how much marriage has changed since the 60s. The link above on the NSCW is insightful on the trends of work, parenting, and marriage, and traditional marriage has definitively declined. Late 2010 the Pew Research Center titled results of a study “The Decline of Marriage and Rise of the New Family.” http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2010/11/18/the-decline-of-marriage-and-rise-of-new-families/
To me, it doesn’t matter because how matter how bad it gets NO ONE who has the power to change it will look at the family courts, will look at how fathers are treated in the family court and how shared parenting should already be the law of the land and if groups like NOW had really been about equality it would have been, instead they have fought long and hard against it. There was even a lawyer who posted here a couple of months ago who is extremely active in denouncing shared parenting and one of the mods here… Read more »
Which piece was it, Aspire?
I would love to broaden the discourse on the issue of shared parenting.
I completely agree that the family court system is in desperate need of an overhaul; however, please know that it is not just Dads who are mistreated by corrupt judges. I’ve even come to wonder if perhaps some Dads take extreme measures against mothers out of their fear of losing their children. End game: it’s the children who ultimately suffer and they are the ones we need to focus on. They are the reason Moms and Dads need to stand together to make the necessary changes with the court system. This isn’t about feminist b.s. anymore. No more excuses… We… Read more »