![famous gay men with a wife famous gay men with a wife](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/12/02/17/2EFF249E00000578-3342982-image-m-13_1449077968292.jpg)
A father's presence in the home protects a child from fear and strengthens a child's ability to feel safe. Fathers provide essential role models for boys Fathers excel when it comes to providing discipline and play and challenging their children to embrace life's challenges ( Kobak 1999)Ĭlinical experience would suggest that motherlessness, while not studied as extensively as fatherlessness, causes even greater damage to a child, because the role of the mother is so crucial in establishing a child's ability to trust and to feel safe in relationships.įathers also bring an array of distinctive talents to the parenting enterprise. Children who were deprived of maternal care during extended periods in their early lives “lacked feeling, had superficial relationships, and exhibited hostile or antisocial tendencies” as they developed into adulthood.
![famous gay men with a wife famous gay men with a wife](https://d2shvezvv4hf5p.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/05054439/ellen-degeneres-gay-1-687x1024.jpg)
They are also better than fathers at detecting their children's emotions by looking at their faces, postures, and gestures. Mothers are more responsive to the distinctive cries of infants: they are better able than fathers, for example, to distinguish between their baby's cry of hunger and cry of pain Infants and toddlers prefer their mothers to their fathers when they seek solace or relief from hunger, fear, sickness, or some other distress These studies have also demonstrated the negative psychological, educational, and social effects on children who have been deprived of growing up in a home with both biological parents who are married to each other.Ī very brief summary of findings on the mothers' unique and crucial role in childhood development would include these points: A very large body of social science research going back decades has documented the vital and unique role of mothers and of fathers in childhood development.