Also, heard of global warming? Remember Katrina? See the pictures of the latest tornados? Who is safer? A child or children with a father, or single mothers and children? We live in dangerous times, with terrorism, natural disasters etc...Most societies are very strict about this and disregard this at their peril. I think some..again, not all...things rarely apply to everyone...children are fundamentally frightened without a father, some with good and immediate reason because they live in dangerous places.

Also, a little point I might raise...there are some very disturbed women out there...and not to say that having a father around would undisturb them, but there is a witness, there is another parent....of course said mother could make things very difficult for the father...

Two things I have read that strike me as very important about the role of the father..besides being a loving parent, a protector and provider of some sort...

1. A man wrote to a Vancouver WA paper and said the function of a father was to protect society from his children.

2. Bob Dylan said the function of a father was to protect them from the mother...

I am not blaming the victim ..except the rich ones who frankly should know better and in my opinion are being just horribly selfish...but there needs to be an understanding of the damage this is doing to everyone, the children first and foremost, the father who might want to be involved but isn't, the mother's parents who often bear a burden they shouldn't have to, the taxpayers often...

Yes..I believe that this has spread, will continue to spread and will seriously affect the economics of the country when some people have to work way too hard and too much to take care of other people's children, which we must do...but there has to be personal accountability and there has to be less, way less, enabling and almost sanctifying this...mg