During this week of class we discussed so much! Finances, budgeting, getting out of debt, women working outside the home, dual income and dual career families, and the influences of fathers on the family, especially their children are just some topics we spent a week learning about. So much to talk about! This is probably more than I can even do justice for. So, there are a few points however that I think are super important to talk about and make sure everyone knows!
In our discussion of finances I realized something very important: that finances aren’t all about the money! Shocking I know! I thought that financing was strictly budgeting, you know, recording our income and spending. There is more to it than that though. We read a financing pamphlet called “One For the Money”. This pamphlet gives us incredible advice about how to get our finances in order. One of the suggestions was to “learn to manage your money before it manages you”. The ability and self-control to manage your money is crucial to the family and to a marriage. The author encourages women to instead of looking for a man who makes a lot of money, find a man to marry who manages his money well. What great advice! Despite the amount of income, if a couple or a family can manage what money they have well, they will be blessed. Another important suggestion I thought worth mention is to teach our family the importance of earning and saving money early. There are different ways we can do this. I personally don’t feel the need to give my child an allowance but couples who do can jump start them in to money management in this way. You can offer children opportunities to do extra chores, outside of what they are already expected to do, to earn some money. Along with instilling in children the drive to earn their own money we need to teach them how to manage that money in ways they can understand. Setting up savings charts or piggy banks are one way. The pamphlet also recommends making education a continuous process. We should always be furthering our education in some manner. Finances encompass more than just our ability to make and spend money but also our attitudes and means by which we earn a living.
The topic that I find the most important to discuss is the roles of fathers. I had the opportunity to write a paper on fatherhood as a part of this class. Originally I wasn’t sure I was supposed to say. I came up with things like…”uhh dads are nice. Fathers are important.” But I didn’t understand HOW important until I did a little more research. Did you know that 1 in 3 children in American today will grow up without a father in the home? 1 in 3! The fact that I grew up with a father is almost the exception and not a rule. As I was researching I stumbled on the National Fatherhood Initiative website. This website had incredible information pertaining to the importance of fathers, the effects on children without fathers, and resources for fathers who are just not quite sure how to do it. In one of the articles I read on this website they had interviewed men and fathers about how they felt about the roles of fathers. More than half of them said that fathers could easily be replaced by the mothers or other men! How can fathers not think that they are important!? Children with fathers have better grades in school, better health, less delinquency and teen pregnancy, and the list goes on and on. An even more startling fact is that though mothers are important, they don’t have the same effects on their children as a missing father does.
Personally, I want to make a call to all fathers encouraging them to simple BE THERE! Children need fathers. Many children growing up without dads don’t understand what it is to be a man. Girls don’t understand what to look for in a husband because they don’t have an example of what one should be. The problem is perpetual as children without fathers don’t know how to be fathers and leave another generation fatherless. Let us decide to stop the cycle! There are lots of resources out there to teach fathers their role and how to perform it. The National Fatherhood Initiative website is a start. Make the choice to be there for your kids and do it! I was blessed with a wonderful father who though he was busy working, always made an effort to be a part of his children’s life. Fathers are important and they can’t be replaced. They are a central part to Gods plan for the family. His eternal plan, because a family is forever!
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