Forgetting Fathers in Social Work

The topic of fathers and paternal rights is often a controversial issue in social work, especially in CPS cases. Often fathers are not given the same considerations or notifications when their children enter the social services system.

In my MSW Child Protection course, the issues surrounding fathers and paternal role models was a very small topic. Next month, Northeast Wisconsin Family Services through their Parent Connections Program, will be having recreational activities for young kids to be able to interact with their fathers or other similar positive male role models.

As I have said previously, when I began working with teenagers I was unprepared to be a male role model. However I quick saw the need for young men to have positive male contact and also to see men interacting with women in a respectful manner. I also did not appreciate the adults that I saw who easily dismissed their role in modeling positive behaviors or who would ignore negative behaviors because they did not want to lose that friendship relationship with youth that they interacted with on a daily basis.

Being a man, I know that typically men like to show their love by doing things or providing things. It can be hard when you tell fathers that the real trick in life is quality time at work, quantity time at home. It is far too easy to dismiss the roles of men and fathers in children’s lives. We must try harder as a profession and as a society. We cannot forget that fathers play an integral part in children’s lives. Many youth are raised by single fathers and they can attest to gender discrimination when it comes to social service delivery and policies.