Absent Fathers Quotes

More than 72 percent of children in the African-American community are born out of wedlock. That means absent fathers.

Take a look at my family, a different father every weekend.

I grew up without a father, and my mother grew up without a father and her mother grew up without a father. So we have this long heritage of growing up without fathers.

There's a lot of single black women who did the best that they could and that's a beautiful thing, but they don't know how necessary a father is in a kid's life and how much guys miss that deep down inside.

We have a number of difficulties facing our nation, but I believe fatherlessness is right at the top of the list.

Some men don't want to be responsible fathers. It's easier to say 'Let's just turn the kids over to the state.' Women end up bearing the entire load, raising kids alone without a husband to share the parenting.

We have so many young men, especially, who are growing up without their dads. We have to fill that void. We have to do a better job helping young people see what it means to be a man, what it means to be a woman. And then, somehow, we have to put that family structure back together.

Many of us were raised without a father, and the subject of deadbeat dads hits home in a lot of areas. Most of all, doing a song about being a father to your daughter flies straight in the face of the argument that says hip-hop is misogynistic.

Growing up, I didn't know about families who were missing a father, because there weren't any in our neighborhood. Today over a third of American children are born into single-parent homes. Is this all men's doing?

It began to really eat away with me that in the '60s the federal government, desiring to help poor moms who were dealing with deadbeat dads, decided, 'We'll help: we'll give a check for every child you can have out of wedlock.'

Today, what most people live in, or with, is the less-than-nuclear family. Working fathers are absent from home during most of the day, the children are schooled outside it, and practically all women who work for money must go outside to earn their living.

There weren't really any visible men in my family when I was growing up, but of course there have been men in my life, wonderful men.

Divorce is something I think that children feel particularly hard and what's sad about a lot of divorces, and certainly about my divorce, is that absent fathers who really want to play a part in their children's lives but don't live there, they have a pretty tough time.

I know virtually no one of my age who can remember a hug, or a smile from their father, or a 'Let's go play football.'

I didn't have my dad there and I had another mate who didn't have his father, and you kind of form your own little family and that's what gangs are, that's why you have so many gangs now because there are so many kids without fathers that they seek their own male bonding.

The majority of fathers that I saw when I was growing up in Vancouver didn't take the responsibility to look after their kids, and I was aware that society is geared towards punishing single women.

I don't have children that I've lost in a bitter custody dispute. But I see an enormous wound in kids due to a lack of their dads.

It makes me unhappy when brothers make babies and leave a young mother to be a pappy.

There are good sailors. Well, some good sailors. In a way they are ideal as husbands. They drop in every six months for a wild celebration, then they drop out again before one gets bored with their company or annoyed with by their habits.

Fatherlessness is a rot that is eating away at the modern soul.

When husbands and fathers leave, their wives and daughters tend to value themselves less as a result.

When fathers are not present, government becomes the 'baby daddy' and conservative social values are harder to pass on to the next generation.

Growing up in Chicago is hard. I'd say 80 percent of the people ain't really got no daddies. Their household wasn't right. All they know is the streets and getting some money to support each other and support their family.

I think in today's society we are dealing with an epidemic of fatherless homes. We're turning everywhere else for people to be fathered.

Women who bring up children by themselves do it heroically, they do it against all odds, men who don't feel responsible for being part of their child's life create real strains on that family.