learning, day care and sometimes food. Children can be called on to do .
adult tasks before they are ready, like caring for younger siblings. .
Older children may be required to work long hours at a job to help .
bring money to the family. As a result, they may fall behind in their .
school work. After a while, the child may feel it is hopeless to try .
to keep up and decide to quit school.
At this point a girl may decide to get pregnant and bear a .
child. She may feel that in doing so her life will have more meaning.
and she will receive unconditional love from the child. A U.S. .
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth reveals that 27% of girls from .
divorced families become mothers versus 11% of girls from traditional .
families. For boys, leaving school generally means a succession of low .
paying jobs or life on the streets.
Certainly our "fatherless society" cannot be blamed for all .
juvenile delinquency but it is a major contributor. Morals are taught.
best within the confines of a stable home with both parents present. .
Retired Edmonton Police Service Superintendent Chris Braiden, notes .
that in the thirty year period in which violent youth crime rose by .
300% in the U.S., the number of single parent families rose by 300% .
and the divorce rate doubled, the same as it did in Canada. Seventy .
percent of juvenile offenders in the U.S. jails grew up without a .
father.
There is a drastic shortage of positive male role models. .
There is no doubt about it; single mothers have and can continue to.
raise good and responsible children. It takes the physical and .
emotional strength of Hercules to do it and I have great respect for .
mothers who have succeeded. My own mother did it. But the numbers show .
that lack of fathers contribute greatly to juvenile crime.
Lately, the role of the father is superfluous. He has been .
reduced to being a household helper or a child support payer. His role.
is important because he provides a love that is different than the .
