Let Fathers Father

The Chicago Tribune's Christi Parsons reported on today's statements on fatherhood by President Obama. Here is the Los Angeles Times story.

President Obama on Monday pledged a series of new initiatives to support responsible fatherhood, but called on fathers to recognize the limits of government to achieve what only they can do in the home.

It seems to me that various levels of government have done much to discourage responsible fatherhood, including perpetuating paternity fraud, and I doubt more government involvement will make things better.

In his annual Father's Day event, Obama urged fathers to mentor their own children – and to reach out to those in the community who don't have strong parental or guardian support.

While I admire people who are mentors, coaches, troop leaders, etc., I will not put my own children at risk for losing their father by doing anything where anyone could possibly make a false allegation against me that could then be taken seriously by the authorities. Men who look to provide leadership to the children of other people are looked at with suspicion by too many people, unless he's sleeping with the mother of the children. Which is strange, considering the guy who is sleeping with the mother is more likely to be a child abuser than the coach.

"We can't legislate fatherhood," Obama told a crowd gathered on the southeast side of Washington. "But what we can do is send a clear message to our fathers that there is no excuse for failing to meet their obligations."

Yes, there are excuses. They are called courts not preventing mothers from moving the kids across country, false allegations of abuse that result in restraining orders, etc.

[Read more after the jump.]

The White House is kicking off a program to recruit mentors and give them support, administration officials said.

If these are going to be mentors of children instead of mentors of fathers, does this mean that federal taxpayer will be on the hook when one of the mentors is sued for molestation?

The Department of Justice is starting a fathering reentry program for ex-offenders, which officials plan to institute in courts across the country to help ex-convicts find jobs and pay child support.

Will this mean that ex-cons will have an easier time of getting jobs than people who have clean records?

There were some comments on the paper's website.

"lounsbury" at 10:17 AM June 21, 2010:

You want to fix fatherhood Mr. Obama? Great! Then create the conditions for marriage to survive by ending the system that rewards women for walking away from her family with everything, and punishes men by default.

"marioW." at 10:27 AM June 21, 2010:

Mr. President, first we have to recognize that most of these issues are from kids having kids, and tax payers will almost always have to foot the bill not only for the children but the residues associated with kids having kids.

How much better off would everything be if people:

1. Waited to have children until after they, being prepared to be a spouse, married an emotionally healthy person also prepared to be a spouse with whom they were basically compatible (goals, priorities, values, personality, lifestyle), giving a child up for adoption into such a marriage if the child was born to a woman not in such a situation?

2. Modeled loving marriages, parenting with minimal government interference?

3. Stay married at least until the children were raised?

Men could be better fathers if they weren't competing with the government to be daddy and paying the government to do it, if their children weren't being told fathers are irrelevant or even detrimental, and if women weren't financially and socially rewarded for divorcing good husbands.

Men - Don't risk making a baby with a woman unless you are in a healthy, stable marriage with her and she is mother material. This includes refusing to donate sperm. Then, when you do become a father, stand up for your children and be there for them. Do not allow strangers, hired help, or government employees to raise your children.