Fathers and Finances

“Whatever you accomplish [in life] is incomparable to being a parent.”-Jeremy Warner. Parenthood is a great responsibility and as soon as you receive that bundled-up child from the hospital, immense pressure is placed upon you (if it wasn't already felt during the pregnancy). It is obvious that there are a billion ways over the course of the next 18 years that you can seriously impact that child's life for the worse, and it seems as though positive outcomes arbitrarily appear. Though parenting is difficult, there are certain ways to help give stability and resilience to children as they grow. Of all the research conducted, fathers play an enormous role in the formation of young minds, both emotionally and educationally (Rollè et al., 2019). Fathers tend to use words that are just outside the understanding of their little children, which encourages and stretches their vocabulary (Vallotton et al., 2017).

The father has three main jobs: protect, provide, and preside. When he fulfills these jobs adequately, the home becomes stable, even if there are other concerns present, such as medical conditions.

Protect: a father's job is to protect his children and his wife from all things physical, emotional, and spiritual. He teaches his children to respect their mother as a foundation for all the teaching and nurturing that she will do while he is away at work. The father protects his children from media content that would harm them or raise questions they are not ready to ask. Fathers are usually the ones to instill and execute discipline in the children after it has been discussed with their mothers as well. Fathers protect their children by offering a warning and means to course correct when the children are making mistakes. Children have only limited experience in the world and fathers should love their children enough to tell them when they are being foolish.

Preside: fathers preside over their homes, not as tyrants, but as leaders that are able to make the best out of a bad situation. They should act as leaders, and teach their children to be upright and strong, following in his footsteps. He should spend time with them, seek to understand them, and strive to communicate his love for them. The religious leader Joseph F Smith once said, “To be a successful father or a successful mother is better than to be a successful general or statesman.” While a father can be a general or statesman, he must know what he truly is and keep his feet squarely planted in the business and goings-on of his home.

Provide: A man should seek to have many marketable skills (video games hardly being one of them), and endeavor to use them so that he may provide for his family. Idleness and complaints about the world around him should greatly be spurned from his life. I am sure his wife would greatly appreciate it. A great father will develop a love of learning and instill it in his children. Though he may not have a formal education, he and his children should enjoy learning about the world around them together. Though a man should seek to earn an honest living, his wife would also appreciate him arriving home promptly from work, to where the real investment of his energy should be, home. A father should rarely have the need to call home and explain that he'll be back at some ungodly hour of the night because of the tasks at the office. The extra money will assuredly go unnoticed by the children. Another religious leader, Henry Eyring, explained how money may buy a bigger house but does not buy happiness. “Happiness is more a function of worthwhileness than the possession of material things.” This statement is supported by the statistic that once a family earns more than $70,000 a year, there is no noticeable increase in their perceived happiness.

As urbanization rapidly changes the world, children are less likely to work alongside their parents in the fields and farms. With children going to school and their parents working, the time afterward becomes increasingly precious. Children need to know that they are loved and fathers best demonstrate this love through what they provide, but more importantly, the time they invest in their children and their futures. Arthur Ashe once remarked, "True heroism is…not the urge to surpass others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost." As fathers strive to become true heroes, the whole family will benefit.