A dad’s role is vital
Dads in the Picture is an organisation of like-minded fathers, who saw a need for fathers to play an active role in the lives of children.
The vision of Dads in the Picture is to encourage every dad to take responsibility in the upbringing of children in a safe environment.
Organisation chairman Meshack Kekana says men who have not been afforded the presence of a father, and who have not been taken through the parenting paces are, in most cases, expected to be better at what they do not know.
“Everything that men know, they get from their peers who, themselves, are clueless,” he explains.
Kekana says women have been provided with the tools to be good mothers and make a better life for themselves and children, but society has never taken time to educate men, who have never experienced their father’s involvement in parenting.
“We encourage our girls to be better at home making, parenting and careers, but only talk to men about making money to take care of family. The picture becomes simple for them, earn a living, that’s all you are expected to do,” he adds.
Senior Pastor of God’s Way Ministries in Witfield, John Rushton, says one of the major problems in society is the lack of fathers in the home, and in some cases even when the father is present, he is not functioning in a fatherly capacity.
“The role of the father is to guide the family, teach right from wrong and give unconditional love and acceptance. This is what children need, and this is what fatherhood is all about,” says Rushton.
Rushton says children need their dad, and the love and acceptance of a dad in a child’s life cannot be over-stated, as it is critical.
“Many young girls, who have been deprived of the love and acceptance of their father, seek to fill that void with the attention of boys in their life. Not all these boys have good intentions and prey upon the love-vacuum in these girls,” he says.
Kekana reiterates this sentiment, saying a father is there to offer love that otherwise will be sought out from other men.
“The growth in the sugar-daddy syndrome is due to a lack of love from dads to daughters,” he says.
“The father is there to guide and give a more logical input that slightly differs from that of the mother.
“A father will provide the support that she needs to wipe away her tears and fight her battles.”
According to Kekana, the relationship between a father and son and father and a daughter is slightly different.
“To a son, he imparts wisdom and helps in boosting his confidence and, in so doing, the son aims to live up to be the hero that fathered him,” he says.
