From party frocks to invites and Christmas cocktails, we've got everything you need to throw a fabulous party
Fathers aren’t from Mars
Apparently, children whose fathers take an active role in their upbringing are more likely to do well at school and avoid getting into trouble with the police. This seemingly plain piece of common sense is the conclusion of a team of academics from the University of Lancaster, who examined 700 British and international reports spanning 20 years on the impact of fatherhood.
They found that children in Britain are likely to achieve better GCSE results if their fathers are more involved with their development. Led by Professor Charlie Lewis, the research team reported: ‘In families where fathers offer kindness, care and warmth during primary school years, children are likely to do well at secondary school.’
For Daily Mail writers and Tory Party leadership contenders this must sound like perfect material for a sanctimonious sound bite in favour of marriage, followed, no doubt, by yet another brickbat for all those single mums. What’s more, Professor Lewis says that fathers are now the main carers for children when the mothers are at work.
So maybe the publication of this report just before Fathers’ Day was a bit cute, but the timing ensured it was picked up by the national media, thereby helping the good Professor to achieve one of his objectives. His research aims to help extinguish the myth that fathers are remote and irrelevant to the lives of their children. At last! What a change it makes to read something that is supportive of fathers. It’s also refreshing to receive acknowledgement that our role has changed and – more importantly – our approach is vastly different to that of our own fathers.
But wait, Professor Lewis also found that although the amount of time that fathers spent with their children hadn’t changed in 40 years, the sharp rise in the number of working mothers meant that fathers now played a more active role in child-rearing. And this is where I think the good intentions of our friends in academia start to flounder. You see, the modern family unit depends more on the ‘new nanny state’ and not the new enlightened, ‘hands-on’ Dad, to meet the demands of raising children when both parents are working.
1 | 2 | 3 | next
printer friendly
send to a friend
Delicious
Digg
reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
Horoscopes| Message Boards | Quizzes | Newsletters | Join
iVillage Ltd is a UK company registered in England & Wales (3837269) at 80-110 New Oxford Street, London WC1 1HB
