Fathers are important in the development of children.
"There's an awful lot of cultural belief that fathers are second-class
citizens," said Joe Kelly, who founded the national advocacy nonprofit
Dads and Daughters. "We're not more important than moms, or less. We're
different."
A father's impact and the role he plays are far more important than one might think.
Fathers are cited more than mothers in issues such as psychological
maladjustment, substance abuse, depression and behavioral problems,
according to research done by Ronald Rohner, director of the Center for
the Study of Parental Acceptance and Rejection in the School of Family
Studies at the University of Connecticut, and his colleague Robert
Veneziano. They also found that a father's love helps prevent the
development of these problems and can also contribute to a child's good
physical health.
This influence is equally vital for daughters and sons, although how each are affected differs.
When it comes to girls, Dad is clearly the first man in her life.
"A daughter looks to her father, and there she sees the standard of
what it means to be a man," Kelly said. "Girls are hammered thousands
of times a day with outrageous messages that boil down to 'how you look
is more important than how you are.' They think so much is based on
whether or not a man notices them.
"I can be the most important force in her life to tell her that is a
lie. What I value is what you have to say, what you do, what you think
your spunk, your soul, your heart. That's what's important. We can show
that about all women," Kelly said.
Girls notice the relationship their father has with their mother - even
in families where the father lives outside the home. They see how their
father talks about women, how he treats them, and that's her foundation
for her future relationships.
The father's job is to show her the way.
"A lot of us don't expect ourselves to be involved parents," Kelly
said. "I think it's changing with younger fathers, but it's not
changing fast enough. ...We grow up with the idea that we are supposed
to be providers. We have too narrow a definition of provider. We reduce
it to the wallet. We have to provide time, strength, masculinity."
Hazard counts his father-daughter activities, including camping trips
with the group from the YMCA, as among his favorite times. He does not
want to forget a moment of the time he's spent with Brittany. He also
wants to leave her a legacy, something for her to revisit over the
years.