Happy Father's Day: Why dads are considered special

Why are dads special?

Moms, too, of course, but Sunday is Father’s Day, which was first promoted by the Eastern Orthodox Church, starting in the early 1500s, and then advanced further by the Roman Catholic Church, and picked up by the Protestants after that.

All in all, a day to celebrate, to be sure.

By the way, the number of American kids today who live in two-parent households, compared to 1960, is actually higher than most people would guess, including me: 71.1 percent vs. 87.7. (Source: WEA Children’s Network.)

That 71.1 percent number, by the way, includes both married and unmarried parents.

If you look at most old-school psychological/ sociological studies, they will say, with very few exceptions, that a child has a better chance of “making it” in life, as it were, if her or she grows up in a home with two parents, a female role model and a male role model.

Unless, of course, the dad is abusive, either physically or verbally, toward either the mom or the child, or both, then all bets are off. Also, if you take time to look up studies, the odds increase that the male child of an abusive father will grow up to be the same way as dear old dad when he settles down and marries.

Meaning, the tragic cycle of abuse continues. For kids fortunate enough to grow up in a loving home, though, with both a positive male and female role model, their chance of becoming a success in life increases. At least that’s what the old studies used to show.

Now, if you do an online search for — Children who grow up in a home with both a positive male and female role model — the results will do their best to disabuse of that notion.

Even Google’s AI bot, Gemini, wants to make us believe that having a male parent/role model in the home carries no weight.

Asked about the advantages of having a male parent and a female parent in the home, Google AI is quick to point out that genders really have nothing to do with successful parenting.

For example, according to GeminiAI:

“Positive role models, regardless of gender, play a significant role in children's development by fostering self-esteem, teaching values, inspiring achievement, and promoting positive relationships.”

Obviously, that’s true. If both parents, male and female, are meth addicts, chances for a positive outcome for the child aren’t especially good without any positive role model in sight. Sure, grannie may be coming over tonight, but she’s a boozer, so no help there.

Genders, Not Important

Then Google’s AI takes the time to point out, however, that having both genders, male and female, in the home isn’t all that important:

“Some research suggests that children raised by different-sex couples may experience certain advantages, but these findings have been debated and may be influenced by socioeconomic factors.

“Other research indicates that the gender of parents has little impact on children's outcomes, and same-sex couples can be just as effective as heterosexual couples in raising well-adjusted children.”

Sure, but the child still won’t gain the advantage of having two genders living at home, serving as role models, will he/she?

“A recent systematic review found,” says Google’s AI, “that most family outcomes are similar between sexual minority (gay couples) and heterosexual families, and sexual minority families may even have better outcomes in some domains, like children's psychological adjustment and parent-child relationships.”

Wow. So, according to Google AI, gay couples may actually serve the child better during his/her developmental years?

Apparently. Who would have known? In my own case, when my bio dad split for the hills when I was about 3-and-a-half-years old, it was just me and my mom for about two years before she met Gene Wendorf.

I can still remember at about 5-and-a-half years old, the thrill I felt when I once again had a dad in my life. I only had one memory of my bio dad, but I knew I was missing, at some deeper level, a male figure in my life, who could teach me how to, well, become a man, hit a baseball.

If mom had brought home a Greta instead of a Gene, would I have still turned out okay?

“Who says you’re okay now?”

You know what I mean. I did, after all, carry my bio dad’s DNA, which was all male, only maybe headed in the wrong direction — booze and women, fast living, freedom from domestic life. So much so, he died at only 53 from a liver that blew up. Not the kind of guy who should ever have gotten married.

In the end, I’m sure that a gay couple can raise quality kids and do so every single day of the yea.r No one, though, can ever convince me, no matter how much effort is placed into any AI bot, that a child raised in a home with a male and female role model doesn’t have the best of both worlds.

Again, just to make clear, this isn’t to say that a gay couple can’t serve as quality parents. It’s just that quality dads are unique to the world, which is why it’s probably worth taking the time to honor them at least one day out of the year.

To all the dads out there, granddads, Happy Father’s Day.