Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Involved Fathers are Good; Fathers and Mothers Working Together Are Better
Laurie Tarkan has a fine article in the New York Times on a nifty new study by the Cowans and the Pruetts (long-time family researchers) comparing a control group, a father-training group, and a couple-training group. The kids of the trained fathers came out better than the controls, but the kids of the trained couples came out better still.
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4 comments:
I read the linked article and it seemed innocuous enough, but there is something a little too Orwellian (or Huxlian) for my taste in the notion of "trained" fathers and couples.
Then again, I'm paranoid . . . but only for good reason.
Since moms and dads working together seem to be better for kids what about the kids who have only two mommies or only two daddies. Seem like the children might be missing something in that situation. Can this question be studied? Would it be considered hate filled?
The training seems to be in listening and talking to one another.
I think the same-sex couple research would be worth doing. Not hate-filled to ask.
I must admit my reaction to the article was "You think?" Honestly, have these people ever had two preschoolers in a household at the same time? Two involved parents who work together (and who are not distracted by marital problems) present a united front for the small fry. Anytime you have the same number of adults (working as a team) as children, the easier it is to keep rules consistant and to keep the small fry out of trouble (even it the "trouble" is as minor as dancing rather than putting on shoes to go to school".
When were fathers taken out of the equation. My parents had a fairly typical 1950s marriage. My father left a lot of the day to day childcare up to my mother. However, if my mother had trouble getting results or there was an issue with school my dad was there and taking action. The same was true with our neighbors and my older cousins. Pink walls or women's magazines would not have stopped them.
--Ave
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