Rights of Single Fathers vs Single Mothers

956 Words4 Pages
“Rights of Single Fathers vs. Single Mothers” Upon the death of his young son, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote,” You can never sympathize with me; you can never know how much of me such a young child can take away. A few weeks ago I accounted myself a very rich man, and now the poorest of all.” I realize that the death of a child cannot compare to losing one through divorce. However, the agony of having that child ripped from him is still, for many fathers, a pain that is almost too much to bear. Imagine having that which you cherish the most taken away. Now imagine it being done simply because of your gender. This is the pain that many men live with on a daily basis. This agony is made even worse by the fact that even though many of these men are just as fit (and some even more so) than their female counterparts, many courts favor the mother simply because she is the mother and nothing more. The consensus appears to be that a child grows inside a woman for approximately nine months ergo it must only make sense that the bond between those two is somehow deeper and more tangible than that of a father with his child. Yes, it is true, that for the most part, a man does not have the prenatal bonding that a woman has with the infant during a normal pregnancy. However, this in no way should imply that the connection that happens between a dad and his progeny after the child is born is of any less value or deserves any less consideration from the judicial system. A man can be every bit as vested in his child as the mother. I have seen this with my own father, who was devastated when my mother moved away with us. We were more than eight hundred miles apart, and he was unable to see my younger sister and me for almost a year. Of course, then it was just presumed that children belonged with the mother. However, even in these so called enlightened times, many

More about Rights of Single Fathers vs Single Mothers

Open Document