Girls too need dads at home
Originally posted by Peter Inson at 07:24, January 15 2013
Found myself at a school in front of a class of fifteen year olds talking about boys whose fathers had walked out. At the end of the session the boys disappeared en bloc, for it was break time. Five girls, however, said there were matters arising which they wished to take up with me.
Did I realise how much they had lost because their fathers too had abandoned them?
One was never allowed out with boys because her mother was convinced that all men were inherently underhand if not worse. One had never slept under the same roof as a man and another had never seen her mother “with” a man. Fortunately, these particular girls had the wit and intelligence to appreciate that they had not had the sort of family experiences that would provide a rule of thumb about ways of getting on with boys and the confidence which would guide them in their expectations of men.