EDITORIAL: More dads are needed to step up, be there

Jun. 19—If you have a father or father figure who is there for you — or was there for you — without hitting you or belittling you, celebrate him this weekend. Celebrate the heck out of him for Father's Day.

Increasingly, he's a rarity, to the chagrin of a nation now more than ever desperate for the stability and moral compass of fatherhood and, more specifically, fathers and father figures who truly care, who are willing to guide by example, and who leave indelibly positive influences on their families, communities, and nation.

Sadly, the percentage of fathers living away from their children more than doubled in the past half-century, from 11% in 1960 to 27% in 2010, according to the Pew Research Center.

In just a decade — and in every state, including Minnesota and Wisconsin — the number of two-parent families dwindled by 1.2 million, as the Washington Times reported. In all, there are 64.3 million dads in the U.S., according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. But only 41% of them, or 26.5 million of them, are part of a married-couple family with children.

Some 24 million children nowadays — one out of every three — live without a father, the U.S. Census statistics show.

As a result, more children are in poverty. Married couples with children earn an average of $80,000 annually while families headed by single mothers earn only about $24,000 a year, as the Washington Times found. Children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor, according to census statistics. In 2011, 44% of fatherless children lived in poverty.

The fallout from that is devastating. Children without involved fathers have more behavioral problems and do worse in school, according to the Journal of Family Psychology. And they're more likely to be malnourished, suffer from obesity, experience unplanned pregnancies, commit crimes, and end up in jail, said the National Fatherhood Initiative of Germantown, Maryland.

"There is a 'father factor' in nearly all of the social issues facing America today," says the nonprofit initiative, online at fatherhood.org. "But the hope lies in the fact that children with involved fathers do better across every measure of child well-being than their peers in father-absent homes."

There's only hope in that if a way can be found to reverse the fatherless trend and if more men can be convinced to take responsibility for the lives they helped create.

Sure, some men have perfectly legitimate reasons for not being around. Judging an absentee dad is easy. Divorce, relationships, and personal challenges can be hard.

But far too many men, and increasing numbers of them, are simply choosing not to be around. They're shirking their responsibility. And their families, communities, and nation need them to stop. We need them to step up instead, to man up, if you will, and to do right even when it's difficult.

Then they, too, can be celebrated by grateful families, communities, and our nation on the one day a year set aside for dads.