Jami and Father's Day

First let me say that while I am using the apparently traditional "Father's Day" (apostrophe after the r) I still maintain that since we are celebrating more than one father, it should be "Fathers' Day" but maybe that is just me. As you might be aware, I am not a father. I do have a great father, father-in-law and husband who is father to my 1 1/2 children. And for them I am eternally grateful. I am the person, wife and mother I am in part due to my dad. My father-in-law helped raise the wonderful man I married. I can't say enough about how much I appreciate the Husband and love to see him Daddying - he's great at it. But I don't mean to post about me and my fantastic life. I want to remind us that fathers are important. It really frustrates me to see so many children without fathers in their homes and lives. "I don't need a man" - no, but your children do. And not just the next random guy you shack up with, have a baby by and dump. Children need daddies. I'm not going to go get all the studies that show the harm children who don't have a close relationship with their dad get into. And yeah, I know, some people have crappy dads who stay in the house, and abuse them or ignore them or whatever, but all you women out there, let me just say, if you picked a crappy guy to father your kid, that's still at least partially your fault. If you don't want to keep him for at least the next 18-19 years, don't have his baby. Please. I worked with a woman who was talking about her granddaughter - the fifth generation in their family to be an unwed mother. Read that again. Fifth generation. I said I was sorry that she had to go through that, but she got defensive. She wasn't upset. She was bragging. Five generations and they didn't need men and they were all just fine. I asked her, did she have sons and grandsons? Yes, she had a son and two grandsons. "So what you tell them is that women don't need them? That they can go out and impregnate women and walk away?" She said that she'd taught her children responsibility. "But they've heard you say their whole lives that strong women don't need men to raise their babies. I wonder how many grandchildren out there you have that you've never met, because their moms don't need a man." She looked shocked and didn't have reply. I also wonder if her family would have had five generations of good dads if that first woman hadn't chosen a loser and raised her kids without one. Maybe her 19 year old granddaughter would have gone to school, gotten a career and had her first child with a husband when they were in their late 20s, living in their own home, instead of living with her mother, grandmother and other siblings and a couple of their children, all trying to get on their feet? Dads are important.