Family

---

Fatherhood: An Outstanding Profession!
© 2006

by


Stephen A. Peterson


My twenty-sixth year of life was an outstanding one and the most memorable. I completed another educational degree program. I traveled to Mexico on an archaeological excavation and survey leading to our knowledge and understanding of Pre-Columbian Meso-America. Eleven articles and short stories were written and published. But the most important event that happened to me that year after I turned twenty-six was becoming a father for the very first time!

Mario was born on June 24th with a head full of thick, black hair. Twenty-four minutes after he came into the world, the nurse brought him out of the birthing room to present him to me and my sister, Valerie. Although I knew quite a bit about the birthing process and children having been a human biology major, the nurse explained to us that the deformation of his head was temporary as was the waxy gray nature of his skin. Following her explanation, she passed my newborn son to me to hold and welcome into this big, often confusing world and to marvel over the miracle of a human birth. His small little arms were punctuated with perfectly formed fingers that squeezed my little finger which seemed to say, “Hi, dad! Thanks for being here and welcoming me to this world!”

Holding, stroking his little cheeks, and looking into his eyes that took in all of the brightness of that hospital room brought on such feelings of happiness and joy that it was extremely difficult to return him to the nurse when asked. It was difficult to watch him being placed in a nursery room. It was equally difficult to watch Mario cry while sucking his balled fist. For in my mind, he was hungry. When I informed the attending nurse that he was hungry, she explained that newborns are not fed for a few hours to allow their little bodies to adjust to their new environment. To feed him at that time would be of no benefit to him. To deal with my concerns, I was given permission to dawn a hospital gown and hold him for a second time on his initial birthday.

As Mario and I bonded, I knew without a doubt that no matter what accomplishments, adventures and accolades I have and would receive in my future, absolutely nothing can come close to the intense feeling and joy of being a father! To hear your daughters and sons call you “dad”, “pop” or “old man” has no equal in terms of title or honor.

Although this even was in 1975, it seems like it occurred yesterday. Yet today experts then and now have made great strides in their efforts to diminish, ridicule, even demonize fatherhood, marriage, the two parent heterosexual family and its importance as an absolute necessity for the perpetuation of human relations, servility and society itself. Those who desire to celebrate fatherhood, marriage and two parent heterosexual families are being forced by the pressures of a runaway, Liberal, increasingly atheistic legal and social institutional systems to comply with theories and institutions hostile to fatherhood. The society of the unwilling and willing are being told it is alright to cohabit; it is weird to be excited about fatherhood, and homosexuality is fine if there is love.

As of 2006, it has been reported that 75% of African-American, 70% of Native American, 52% of Hispanics and 22% of Euro-Americans children are born and raised not ever knowing or meeting their fathers. I am stunned and angered by the numbers of men and boys who proudly and without shame brag about the children they have but do not care for. These men and boys, in my eyes, are irresponsible; often suffer from deep-seated psychological problems of hatred towards women and girls not to mention a hatred of themselves. For the majority of these men and boys, the woman and girls they engage sexually are viewed as objects of conquest or with contempt to fulfill their animalistic drives in a sexualized society which encourages such behaviors by not condemning them.

Although my observations do not represent a valid or reliable statistic, children, female or male, tend to be more oppositional, sociopathic and angry when their fathers are absent. Their disruptive, anti-social feelings are expressed with violence, destructiveness to persons and property, and detached, perverted relations with others.

Tragedic is the failure of young males to hold in high esteem fatherhood and to be apart of their daughter’s and sons’ emotional and social development. They miss out on watching a life he helped form grow to talk, walk, play house with, discuss God, teach to ride a bike, eat ice cream together with, wash fingerprints off the wall, teach to drive, listen to and comfort through the heartbreak of a break up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, be present for a graduation, state his views on life, dating, women, men, family, raising children and, most of all, being lovingly and respectfully called “dad”. To his daughter or daughters, he will miss being elevated to the highest respect and unconditional love his little girl’s first love. And though married, her father will be in her and she in his heart forever!

It is equally a sham to believe fatherhood is all peaches and cream. Fatherhood has its ups and downs, challenges and difficulties, tragedies and failure. But overall, the joys of fatherhood, the true oldest profession along with motherhood, outweigh its downsides without question!

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE