The Role of Fathers
Friday June 18, 2010 - 05:14 AM
MFI President Kris Mineau's special message for Father's Day 2010.

Friends,

This Sunday we honor fathers. We honor the men who brought us into this world, taught us how to be gentlemen and supported us through thick and thin. Father’s Day is a time for all of us to remember just how important our fathers were in our lives, and the importance of a father in every child’s life.

From the very beginning, when Massachusetts Family Institute was founded 20 years ago, we have been dedicated to strengthening the family and the Judeo-Christian values upon which the family is based. The God-given institution of family cannot exist without the building blocks of a man and woman coming together in marriage to create life and raise children for the next generation.

Fathers play an irreplaceable role in the development of both boys and girls. He is an example to his son on how a man should act towards a woman, and he is an example to his daughter on how a man should treat her. Fathers interact differently with children than mothers: they teach differently, they play differently, they discipline differently.  But the differences compliment one another with fathers and mothers working together to give their children the life-lessons they need to relate to the opposite sex in a wholesome and constructive manner.

Tens of thousands of social science studies conclusively show that the ideal environment for raising children is in a home with their married biological mother and father. However, when that is not possible, it is critical that fathers be actively involved in the life of their child. That is why we support “Dad’s the Man” to motivate unwed fathers to be an active and good dad to their child.

We say thanks to all the great fathers and grandfathers who have taken it upon themselves to be the man their children and grandchildren need them to be. Our future as a Commonwealth and a nation is predicated on parents – fathers and mothers – raising their children with the family values that America was founded upon. Dedicated and devoted fathers are half of that most essential equation.

Happy Father’s Day!