Responsible Fatherhood: interrogating the duties of a father in the family

Parenting generally is a tedious and tasking responsibility. A father is usually the head of every family. He is the arrowhead of any family hence he has a daunting task and calling.

Sometimes fathers shy away from these responsibilities due to sheer ignorance or lack of goodwill or both. In a family where the father abdicates from the onerous responsibilities placed on his shoulders, the family feel the pain in various and varied ways.

Every responsible and responsive father plays three major roles in the family namely: a protector, a provider and a disciplinarian. These are no doubt huge and herculean tasks. Beginning with the first responsibility, a father serves as the protector of his family. He bears the onerous responsibility of protecting his wife and children from external aggression.

The father also plays the role of a provider of his family needs. This responsibility puts so much pressure on fathers and compels them to work hard and sometimes under extreme and difficult circumstances in order to help provide the needs of the family at all times. This is a role any responsible father performs always with a lot of fulfillment and without grudges. Even when a man has a wife who is working and earns legitimate income and supports the economy of the family, such a support is always seen as a complimentary support by a lot of men.

The last major role of the father in the family is that of being the disciplinarian of the family. Family discipline is of great importance and the father is the chief disciplinarian of the home. He ensures that discipline in the home is maintained at all times by ensuring that his wife and children behave well in and outside the home.

The father should correct his wife but this should be done mostly in private to avoid belittling her before the children. The father should be fair but firm in correcting the children to ensure that they follow the path of rectitude. In doing so, a responsible father should ensure that he corrects his children in love devoid of unnecessary and needless coercion.

The father is the Numero uno in the family. Every good father must at all times and in all circumstances be a good role model to his family since example is better than precepts. A good and responsible father should love his family unconditionally and should make sacrificial provisions for them at all times in keeping with his God given role as the head of the family.

The father should give up inglorious practices and obnoxious behaviours in order to become a true and shinning light worthy of emulation by his family members. Fatherhood is a sacred responsibility that should not be toyed with by any responsible and responsive man. A responsible father is and should be the pride of his family.