Boys okay without dad in their lives?

This came in today's e-mail from the Christian Science Monitor. I couldn't believe it when I read it. Actually, I can believe it. It's just that they're not asking the right people in doing this type of article. The first three paragraphs are below. For the entire article, click here.

"The American family is quietly being transformed by a powerful social trend: more single women are skipping marriage in their quest to become moms. Women and men are delaying marriage until they are older, and fewer wed at all. One out of 3 children is born to a woman who is not married. While the number of teens giving birth has decreased, single motherhood is on the rise for women in their mid-30s to early 40s.

"Cultural conservatives will surely decry this phenomenon as another sign of America's social decay. But today's intentionally single mothers are not undermining the two-parent family - and they are not out to create a world without men.

"Instead, they are forging new families that they hope are as effective as a traditional family. A married mom and dad who have their own children - which today accounts for just 24 percent of American households - remains the yardstick against which families of all kinds are judged."

The first 15 years and two months of my life, I had my father. Then he died. My life changed in many ways that I didn't understand until I had my own sons.

My two sons are ages 12 and 7. The oldest will turn 13 soon. My daughter is 14. In mid-July 2007, she will be the same age I was when my father died, and I plan to mark that occasion.

Would my two boys be as well off as they would be if I weren't in their lives? Would an elementary school gym teacher or a Scout leader provide the same guidance that I could?

Was I better off at age 16, 17 or 18 because my father wasn't around? To me, that's an incredibly stupid question, but one the single-mom-by-choice crowd is answering in the affirmative.

Maybe the next professor of women's studies and sociology should look up those of us who lost a father in our childhoods and ask us if fathers are necessary.