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Problems that a Single Father has to Face
By: Susana S. Polanco
It is true that being a single father is a difficult task in itself, but it is more important to point out the most relevant aspects a single father has to face when he has to be a father and a mother at the same time. No doubt, a huge responsibility!!!
In first place, a single father constantly faces the great concern of fulfilling his masculine function of supplier of the family and of offering his child a better life, from the economic point on view, but this task will not be the only one, if he is a single father, he will also have the responsibility of fulfilling a more affective function, that would have been in charge of the absent mother. The father will have to take very seriously this task because raising a child is not easy at all because it implies an effort, as much as he can, to try to satisfy the child’s need to link to a maternal figure that is of vital importance in the emotional and affective development of every child. When a child does not have this motherly image, it is very frequent that the kid has emotional, academic and behavioral problems due to the absence of the mother and, at a certain extent, of the father too, because he is at work. This situation generates great anguish in the adult; it means to have an enormous responsibility that should have been shared originally by the mother.
All we have mentioned above generates different types of emotions in single fathers, especially:
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Irritability
• Concern
All these emotions will be reflected in the different aspects of his life, but mainly in his relationship with his son, who will be affected if the father is not affective or if he pays more attention to the negative part of the kid than to the positive part of his/her person; this, beyond any doubt, generates many wounds in the child that will be reflected in a weak and fragile self-esteem. That is why we highly recommend, if you have notice this in your child, that you try to strengthen his/her personal value, especially because when adolescence comes it will be necessary to have a solid self-esteem in order to be a healthy adolescent and grown-up.
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