Father and Child Reunion: How to Bring the Dads We Need to the Children We Love

by Warren Farrell

Overview

In Father and Child Reunion, the author demolishes conventional wisdom about the nature of fatherhood and shows how the courts, media, and government create a vast array of subtle, immensely powerful undercurrents that separate men from their children.

Anyone who cares about fatherhood and parenting, anyone interested in the legal and emotional issues that divide fathers from children, anyone viewing fatherhood from the perspective of a journalist, social worker, or lawmaker, and especially any single, married, or divorced parent needs to read Dr. Warren Farrell's thoughtful and challenging book.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781585420759
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/01/1900
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.26(h) x 1.08(d)

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	xi
	Introduction	1
	The Quietest Revolution	1
Part 1	What's Missing When Dad's Missing?
1	Why Dad Is Crucial	29
	The Impact of Dad	29
	The Impact of Shared Parent Time (or Joint Physical Custody)	40
	If Shared Parent Time Isn't in the Cards, Are Children Better Off with Their Mom, or with Their Dad?	41
	Do Boys Do Better with Dads and Girls with Moms?	48
	The Impact of a Stepparent	49
	The Impact of Moving the Child Away from the Non-Resident Parent	51
2	Is There a Mothering Instinct? A Fathering Instinct? And What Does It All Mean for Our Kids?	55
	Exactly What Do Fathers Do with Children That's Different from What Mothers Do?	55
3	Are Dads More Likely to Abuse?	75
	Are Fathers Often Being Falsely Accused of Sexual Abuse?	78
	Is Our Belief in the Superiority of Mothers Related to Our Adopting the Female Definitions of Sexual Abuse?	84
4	What Prevents Dads from Being Involved?	87
	The Dads Themselves	87
	Next Time You See a Full-Time Dad in a Movie, Notice This Formula	91
	How Our Discrimination Against Men's Style of Nurturing Keeps Men from Children	95
	The Badmouthing Barrier	106
5	Toward the Best Interests of Everyone...	111
	Is the "Best Interests of the Child" Theory in the Best Interests of the Child?	111
	Paying Men to Stay, Not to Go Away ...	112
	What Every Dad Can Do (and Mom, Too)	118
Part 2	The Politics of Bringing Dad Home Again: The Feminism That Was
6	Men's ABC Rights	127
	Men's ABC Rights and Responsibilities: Abortion, Birth, Caring	127
	A Man Can Just Have Sex and Disappear, But a Woman Has to Live with the Consequences, Right?	128
	Men's "A" Right and Responsibility: Abortion, or the Fallacy of "It's a Woman's Right to Choose Because It's a Woman's Body"	131
	The "Petri Generation": Questions Frozen Embryos Will Soon Be Asking	133
	How Women's Rights Are Creating Men's Rights	135
	The "Trick and Sue" Law: Female-as-Kryptonite	140
	Is a Men's Birth-Control Pill a Viable Solution?	143
	Men's "C" Right and Responsibility: Caring	148
7	Does Divorce Make Women Poorer and Men Richer?	160
	How Men Lost Their Children Because They Were Not the Primary Parent, and Lost Their Money Because They Were the Primary Breadwinner	166
8	Is Child Support Helping or Hurting the Family?	169
	Are We Giving Women Incentives to Break Up the Family?	169
	Why We Think of Dads More as Deadbeats Than as Dead Broke, Deadened, Dead-Ended, or Dead	179
9	"Visitation" Is for Criminals	186
	The Child's Social Immune System: The Case for Denial of Parent Time as Child Abuse	188
	Why Mothers Deprive Fathers of "Dad Time"	191
	The Men's EEOC (Equal Emotional Opportunity Commission)	197
10	Playing the "Abuse" Card	200
	How a Charge of Possible Child Abuse Can Create the "Twelve Guarantees of Child Abuse" ... Even if the Charge Is True	203
	Daughter Denies Abuse, So Why Is Dad in Prison?	214
	Women Who Sexually Assault, and the Teachers They Become	216
	Is the False Charge of Sex Abuse the "Nuclear Weapon of Domestic Relations"?	218
	Sex Abuse Charges: Toward a Solution	227
11	The Political Consequences of Ignoring Fathers	234
	What the Pro-Choice Woman and the Right-to-Life Woman Have in Common	235
12	Conclusion: Toward a Father and Child Reunion	238
Appendix	What a Man Needs to Do if Divorce Cannot Be Avoided	248
	Resources	253
	Bibliography	256
	Notes	259
	Index	286
	Permissions	303
	About the Author	304

Editorial Reviews

Like his earlier Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say, Farrell's latest book will evoke strong responses with its polemically argued thesis: that fathers are often missing from the family equation and that this is to the detriment of both children and mothers. His research shows, for instance, that children with involved fathers score better on academic and social competence measures as well as on physical and psychological health tests. Issues like child support, visitation, and the female domination of legal proceedings are critiqued and shown to be frequently unfair to men. Unfortunately, Farrell's intensely pro-male tone pits men against women and obscures otherwise thought-provoking comments. In addition, the style is often overly dramatic, e.g., the author asserts that the denial of father-time is "one of the most documentable forms of child abuse." For a positive, supportive title, try Divorced Dad's Survival Book: How To Stay Connected with Your Kids (Perseus, 2000. reprint). For only the largest public and academic libraries. Douglas C. Lord, Hartford P.L., CT Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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