As long as the checks are flowing, the bills are paid, the fridge is packed, what exactly is the problem with this arrangement?
A flat father who provides is better than a full father who is there but pays nothing, does nothing, sleeps all day, smokes and drinks all night. Let’s not be emotional about this; let’s be practical, and let a vibrator take care of the rest.
Update: From the comments…
A deployment is one thing, but a cardboard cut-out is kind of a sorry thing. What happens if the soldier gets back, and the family misses the cut-out?
(by Purocuyu)
Oh for christ’s sake charles. I mean, really.
yes! all the practical things a father gives you, plus a vibrator for the rest.
Umm, I know what you were going for, but the way you phrased it makes it seem like a kid needs a vibrator to make up for having a cardboard father. I’m pretty sure you meant the mother would need a vibrator…at least I hope so.
Harry Harlow would disagree with you. He should at least be covered by some soft terry cloth.
Creepy
You’ve created a false dichotomy, Charles, and one that is based upon misogynist gender-roles. While it is true that a father that simply provides material comfort to his child is better than one that does not, you’ve left out the other roles of that a father is capable of playing and also (probably by accident) endorsed the impression that a woman’s natural role is the nurturer and she is (essentially) railroaded into that role. You should read “The Ethics of Care” by Virginia Held…
Good Morning Charles,
I believe you meant this as a joke and that’s fine if not that funny. Clearly, there is a need for fathers to be with the children they sire. Far, far too many children in the USA are fatherless and it is disproportionally affecting their behavior, school performance and eventually their future. It is greatly unfortunate. I don’t doubt a few make it but still the numbers are too great to overlook and do nothing about.
As Pres. Obama said in his greatest campaign speech of 08′ “there are too many fathers missing in action” and that the absence of his own father created a “hole in his heart”.
By & large, men not just their sperm are needed to create and raise their children. That doesn’t mean that gay men & women married or not can’t adopt children but they a minority in the family structure of the human genome.
God, this is sad.
“This keeps people from feeling sorry for me” no it doesn’t. A deployment is one thing, but a cardboard cut-out is kind of a sorry thing.
What happens if the soldier gets back, and the family misses the cut-out?
Indeed Charles, clearly a military mother trying her best to cope with the stress of the sad situation confronting her family is a fitting target for your intellectual pedantry.
Go $#%& yourself. Preferably with that vibrator.
How about Charles signs up to pay for my kid? We spend $15K-$20K per year on her. I offer to put up a cardboard cutout of him in our house.
I have no problem with using a “flat dad” for little kids whose fathers temporarily are away – it truly is a stand in to let them know he is coming back. Obviously you can’t do that with a divorced dad or a dead beat dad or a junky dad or a dad who has abandoned his family…..
I also agree that this is sad – but whatever floats your boat.
Hmmm…maybe we should make “flat kids” for people who won’t make very good parents.
Yep, except for our (ever decreasing) bread-winning potential, we are pretty much expendable.