False Expectations at the Horse

We were hoping for significant downpours and greenway flooding to make the normal Coconut route a memorable slopfest.  Unfortunately, we were thirty minutes too late as most of the heavy rain had already passed and had to settle for a little rain, some puddles, and the creek just shy of flooding the tunnel.

Perhaps the summer vacation schedules or threat of rain kept the numbers down, but in any event, we only had three with YHC, Flintstone, and JJ.  Here it is in all its glory:

The Thang:

We ran 5 miles.

JJ left for church but Whoopee joined in so three for the run and three for a modified QSource.

Afterwards we finished up with COT and many prayer requests.  We jump started a vehicle for a Starbucks patron before rolling in for Q-Source coffeerama.

This period of QSource allows for the “people’s choice” as we are not following any curriculum or specific book.  Last week Whoopee covered a Lou Holtz book, but only the first three pages.  This week since it was Father’s Day, YHC decided to talk about the difference dad’s make in the lives of children and society because I am the Q and I can do what I want.   I actually rubbed the PAX face in the dirt with my disclaimer because they had no choice but to listen to my lesson that they had no role in choosing the topic.  That is how it works.

Father’s Day was founded in Spokane, Washington at the YMCA in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd, who was born in Arkansas. Its first celebration was in the Spokane YMCA on June 19, 1910. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who raised his six children there.

There is another origin…1908..a church in West Virginia held a service honoring fathers after 362 men were killed in a mining accident in 1907 in Monongah.  Of that number, 250 were fathers.

It wasn’t a holiday until Richard Nixon made it such in 1972.  Mother’s Day was declared a national holiday in 1914.  Other countries adopted fathers day to include such notables as Iran, Turkey, South Africa, Zimbabwe, China, and many more.

Many men don’t like the idea of Father’s Day and it is understandable.  Men tend to be less sappy and we don’t like flowers or brunch.  Many father’s day cards poke fun at dads.  We just persevere and don’t need attention from the outside.

As the late U.S. senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, said: “A community that allows large numbers of young men to grow up in broken families…never acquiring any stable relationship with male authority, never acquiring any rational expectations about the future — asks for and gets chaos.”

Here is what we know (Much of this is common sense):

1. Kids that grow up with engaged, present dads are less likely to drop out of school or wind up in jail.
2. When children have close relationships with father figures they tend to avoid high risk behaviors and less likely to have sex at a young age.
3. They are more likely to have high paying jobs and healthy, stable relationships when they grow up.
4. They tend to have higher IQ scores by the age of 3 with fewer psychological problems.
5. Kids with two parent households are less likely to grow up in poverty.
6. When dad’s get involved and are a part of prenatal care, they are more strongly attached to the baby. When this happens, they are disproportionally remain in the childs life.
7. For dads who live apart from their kids, there are limited options for engaging fatherly interactions. “Writing letters, phone calls — even if you’re not in physical proximity, knowing your dad cares and wants to be involved to the extent that they can is really important,” Marcy Carlson, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin, told Fatherly. If you can’t even do that, buying love isn’t the worst idea. “There’s tons of evidence that financial support of kids is good for their outcomes,” she says. “If dads can provide for their children, that goes a long way.”
8. Dads also seem to offer a unique touch, with at least one study suggesting fathers are better than mothers at teaching children how to swim because they are less overprotective and more likely to let their children venture into the deep end or swim facing away from them.
9. Similar studies cited in the book show that sons who grow up without fathers (or with disengaged fathers) tend to be less popular in preschool. Broadly, the research suggests that boys lean on their fathers more than anyone else as they develop social skills. And one large study of nearly 9,000 adults confirmed that a father’s death affects sons more strongly than daughters, leading to the same sort of health problems seen after an ugly divorce.
10. “Numerous past studies find a link between low-quality fathering and daughters’ sexual outcomes, including early and risky sexual behavior,” says Danielle DelPriore, who has studied how dads impact risky sex. “A father who is cold or disengaged may change daughters’ social environments and sexual psychology in ways that promote unrestricted sexual behavior.”

Children who grow up with involved fathers are: 39% more likely to earn mostly A’s in school, 45% less likely to repeat a grade, 60% less likely to be suspended or expelled from school, twice as likely to go to college and find stable employment after high school, 75% less likely to have a teen birth, and 80% less likely to spend time in jail.

“Most of the literature on widowhood shows that kids whose dads died are better off than kids who go through a divorce,”

As men we need to be present for our children and be a role model for all children.  Kids are always watching you and your behavior and they learn a lot by how you treat others, particularly your M.  

Be a positive example.

Prayer Requests:  Linus dad, Whoopee’s 2.2 and travels to Boston, Turtleman (prayer and praise!)

Roscoe