About Fathers

Perspectives on fathers and their children.

by Paul Raeburn

The New York Times Is Wrong: Alimony Does Not Work as It Should

The NY Times is wrong: The alimony system does not usually work the way it should. Read More

Shared Parenting After Divorce: Please Share Research and Your Personal Experience

Is shared parenting after divorce best for children? Read More

Why It's a Bad Idea to Praise Children

We all like to praise our children, and some of us worry that we praise them too much. Here's an expert who says we shouldn't praise them at all. The problem? It's a way of controlling and manipulating them. Read More

Biological Father Denied Paternity Seeks Changes in Michigan Legislature

Michigan man seeks paternity rights for his biological daughter, but an archaic law says the mother's jailed husband must be considered the father. Read More

Owl Monkeys: Among the Most Amazing Mammal Fathers

Owl monkey fathers mostly take over feeding after weaning. Read More

Does mental illness remove all responsibility for a crime?

It's easy to make a diagnosis of "mental illness" when you are not a mental health professional and you haven't examined the patient. Was Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shot by a man, or by a diagnosis? Read More

Sperm donor loses suit for joint custody of child

A sperm donor who sued for custody of the child he helped conceive sued for joint custody--and lost. The decision was good for the mother. But was it good for the child? Read More

AAP sputters, then retracts policy on female genital cutting

The American Academy of Pediatrics has evidently found that compromise, when it comes to genital cutting, can be unwise. Read More

A child, an absent father, and life in prison

Sarah Kruzan grew up with her mother in Riverside, California. Her father wasn't around. Some would argue that the absence of her father had a lot to do with the way her life unfolded. I would say it's probably more complicated than that. Read More

What does your father mean to you?

Please answer this question for an upcoming post: What does your father mean to you? Read More

Emergency out-of-network care can bankrupt families

Gary Diego was relaxing with his wife, Ellen, when she abruptly lost her hearing and seemed to be losing her grip. She spent 17 days in intensive care before catching pneumonia and dying. A few weeks later, a still-grieving Diego--who had health insurance--got a bill for $75,462.77.

Childless man released from jail after being sentenced for non-payment of child support

Frank Hatley, 50, has no children. He had paid child support for 13 years until 2000, when he learned a child belonging to a woman he had been involved with was probably not his.

Another example of the child support system gone entirely awry.

Take a look at CNN's version of the story.

When Rudy Mancuso's family dissolved, he lost not only his familiar family life, but the crowning achievement of his professional career: the negative for what is probably the most famous photograph in baseball. Read More

More bad news for the children of older fathers

A study of the children of older fathers has found subtle impairments of intelligence and other mental abilities during infancy and childhood.This is only the latest in a series of problems identified in the children of older fathers, an area of study that has been widely overlooked.

Children who make broader use of gestures to communicate at 14 months of age have larger vocabularies when they are 4-1/2 years old and ready to start school, according to a study released today in the journal Science.

The finding might help explain why rich kids have larger vocabularies than poor children.

The Suleman octuplets are the product of Nadya Suleman and a sperm donor. They don't have a father.

It's tempting to put it that way, isn't it? But of course they have a father. Will it trouble them that they might never know him? Read More

Older Fathers: Increased risk of having children with autism, schizophrenia

Just after my two-year-old son, Henry, was born, I was surprised and disturbed to learn that he was at increased risk of autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other ills--because of my age. Read More

Child support: Iraq vet must pay for child of another man

A 19-year Army veteran, now on his third tour in Iraq, will have his Army pay garnished and his tax refund seized to pay child support for a boy who isn't his.

Genetic tests prove the child is not the son of Master Sgt. Christopher Sprowson. His first wife had the boy after having an affair, and according to the Kansas City Star could not tell the court who the father was.

On Jan. 1, Massachusetts adopted new child-support guidelines that will likely raise the amount paid by non-custodial parents, usually fathers.

Are the new guidelines excessive and unfair, as a lawsuit charges? Or were the old guidelines too stingy? How much child support is enough? How much is too much? Read More

Unemployment--and Crimes Committed Against Our Children

Last week, the Labor Department reported that 11.1 million Americans are unemployed, 50 percent more than a year ago.

You might not expect this government statistic to be reported by Psychology Today, but it's vitally important to fathers, mothers, and to our children's futures.

We're eight days from the beginning of the Obama administration and the promise of affordable health insurance for everyone. But a new report from the nonprofit consumer group Families USA highlights how difficult it will be to keep that promise. Read More

Divorce Calculator: Determine your risk in 10 seconds

We like to think we are complicated creatures, and that it would take a vast amount of study and observation to determine what the divorce risk is for those of us who are married. How could someone tell me whether I'm likely to stay married without knowing all the uncomfortable details of my previous marriage, for example, or whether I'm an empathetic husband and father? Read More

Welfare and child support: Nobody wins

The collective child-support debt owed by non-custodial parents--usually fathers--is about $105 billion. That's an impressive figure, but it doesn't represent money that deserving children are losing.

Half of that money is owed not to children--but to the state and federal governments. Read More

Michael Kimmel's sketchy tour of 'guyland'

Micheal Kimmel is a sociologist and one of the leading authorities on men and masculinity. His books include Manhood in America: A Cultural History, The Politics of Manhood and Changing Men. But his new book, Guyland, is perplexing. Read More

New Documentary Indicts Child Support

On Feb. 4, 2005, David Hernandez Arroyo Sr., wearing a flak jacket and bullet-proof vest, shot and killed his ex-wife with an AK-47 assault rifle on the steps of the Smith County Courthouse in Tyler, Texas. He also shot his adult son in the legs, and killed a bystander who rushed in to help the victims. He then fled in his truck, giving rise to a police chase during which he was shot and killed. Read More

Are Men Under Siege?

Book review: In Save the Males: Why Men Matter and Why Women Should Care (Random House), Kathleen Parker argues that feminists have undermined men. And she explains what must be done about it. Read More

Should child custody be based on pre-divorce share of caretaking?

Judges are supposed to decide custody after divorce by doing what's "in the best interests of the child." That can be tough to figure out, so legal scholars are proposing an alternative: Children should spend as much time with each parent after the divorce as they did before. But a psychologist argues that this so-called "approximation rule" has little basis in science-and tilts against fathers. Read More

The Attentive Father

A newly published review of 24 studies finds that fathers have an important positive influence on their kids: When fathers are engaged with their children, boys have fewer behavior problems, girls have fewer psychological problems, and both show enhanced cognitive development. Read More

Maternal Gatekeeping: Do mothers limit fathers' involvement with their kids?

A decade ago, researchers began to suspect that mothers played a key role in determining how involved fathers are with their kids. But they didn't have much evidence. Now, a new study finds that mothers do play an important role both in encouraging and curtailing fathers' involvement. Even fathers who want to be involved with their kids often drift away with persistent maternal criticism. Read More

Journalist Paul Raeburn is the author of Do Fathers Matter? to be published by Simon & Schuster in 2013. He is also the author of the Fathers and Families blog.

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