A toast to the absent fathers

Preacher Billy Graham once said: “A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.”

Looking around us at contemporary South African society, we can’t help but wonder if that is one of the reasons for our social instability … we don’t have enough good fathers as male role models.

So many of our children are being raised in single-parent households – often by their mothers, or even their grandmothers – because their fathers have absconded from their lives.

And, while many such women do a fantastic job of raising children, the reality is that the absence of a strong father in the lives of kids can often affect them negatively.

Some may drift into crime, drink or drugs and others may adopt the devil-may-care ways of the man who abandoned them.

Men need to realise that having a child is something to treasure … but that it means making a lifetime commitment.

That commitment should also be much more than merely providing for the physical needs of the child.

It means providing love, respect and trust.

A young person raised with those values will one day become a valued asset to help rebuild our nation.

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