That’s My Dad
You’ve probably heard the old adage, “Nothing breeds success like success.” We often chuckle at this, but the truth of the statement is obvious. Success is not often achieved alone. Successful people only achieve success because someone else is usually there cheering them on, whispering in their ear that they can do it, and loving them through the difficult times that are necessary to shape the skills of each successful person.
The reality is that we often achieve success not for the sake of success itself, but for the sake of the one who inspired us, believed in us, and loved us enough to care and invest in our lives. To be truly valued, success must be shared. So let’s create another adage to the above statement: “Behind every successful child is a good dad.”
What fathers say will often determine their child’s way.
Author of the book “That’s My Dad!”, Joe Battaglia.
The one common denominator of many of society’s ills—pornography, human trafficking, abortion, rape, murder, alcoholism, teen suicide, and incarceration—can be traced to absentee fathers.
The US Department of Health indicates that 63 percent of youth suicides are from fatherless homes, and that 90 percent of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes too. Not only that, but the Center for Disease Control suggests that 85 percent of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes, and Justice and Behavior states that 80 percent of rapists with anger problems come from homes where a father is absent.1
Fatherless homes contribute to the national dropout rate among high school students too, revealing that 71 percent of all high school dropouts come from homes where a father is absent.2
These statistics reveal that men who have abdicated their roles as fathers is the single greatest problem in society today.
The book That’s My Dad! describes the impact of fathers in the lives of highly successful individuals. To compete at the professional level of any field of endeavor requires not just skill but the confidence to stand the stress, and the mental toughness required to be successful. Many men and women have natural skills, but many of the people in the book would be the first to say that without the affirming love and support from their fathers, or from some father figure in their lives, they would not have achieved the level of success that they enjoy today.
At times, though, a loving, involved father is not present in the home, even for many successful people. The authors interviewed individuals who either had no father or had an abusive father. And yet, they still had someone in their life that replaced their earthly nonexistent father with someone to encourage them, believe in them, and be the father in their lives.
And for those who had no fathers in their lives, this is a book about forgiveness. We can still follow the biblical admonition of honoring our fathers by forgiving them, and releasing ourselves from the chains of bitterness, anger, and resentment that do more to hold us down than lift us out of our pasts to secure our futures.
The book’s intention is to identify the power of true fatherhood and the difference it makes in the lives of children. Each chapter focuses on a central theme embodied by the type of father described, and then enlarges on that theme to illustrate important life lessons, which will be depicted through a mix of exclusive interviews, questions, personal stories, and life principles.
All of us want to, or at least yearn to, stand up and shout, “That’s my dad!”
Footnotes
1 Raymond A. Knight and Robert A. Prentky, “The Developmental Antecedents and Adult Adaptations of Rapist Subtypes,” Criminal Justice and Behavior 14 (Dec. 1987): 403–426.
2 National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools, accessed Jan. 28, 2016, www.fathersrightsdallas.com/tag/national-principals-association-report-on-the-state-of-high- schoolsThat’s My
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