Science Of being a father

“I cannot think of any need in childhood as the need for a father protection”

-Sigmund Freud-

I was reading a magazine and my eyes fell on this certain article called “Dad effect”.
I had to read it a couple of times to understand it but I certainly did and I wanted to share how much of an effect a dad has over his child.

The Scientific Reasoning:

It was always thought that mothers were hormonally primed to be parents, and fathers learned child bearing culturally. However fathers are better equipped and prepared biologically for parenting, than previously thought.

• Levels of hormone testosterone dropped in the weeks surrounding his baby’s birth, and the levels of Oestrogen and Prolactin, normally associated with females, rose. Prolactin promotes milk production in women and stimulates maternal behavior such as nest building in some species.

Fathers with higher level of Prolactin are more alert to a baby’s cry and those with lower level of testosterone feel more like responding to it.

Pheromones are chemical signals that can change behavior and all sorts of creatures- from Insects to Humans emit them. Father pheromones may help to explain why girls reach puberty when they do. Women who grew up with their biological father in the household experienced sexual maturation four months earlier on an average, than women who lived with their biological father.

(In a study of 2000 females in college). Fathers may emit a pheromone that slows their daughter’s sexual maturation, (Possibly nature’s defense against inbreeding in mammal).

On Language Development:

• In how children learn language, fathers have a bigger role in their children’s language development. Fathers who use more diverse vocals have positive impact on their children’s later development. Books a father selects and the way he reads and talks about them, strongly influence kids language development, reading skills and general knowledge. A Dad is more like to choose non fiction over fiction. Girls whose fathers read to them show much higher verbal skills.
  

Parenting Style:

• Fathers have different parenting style from mothers. Whereas mothers like to soothe and calm down their children, fathers like to excite and stimulate them, and dads likes to encourage their child to take risk. Fathers tend to be more arousing and unpredictable with their kids from the beginning. Babies as young as eight weeks old notice the difference between Mums protectiveness and a Dad stimulation.

Kids picks father over mothers for fun and action more than two thirds of the time. When a Dad plays rough, “its about affection not aggression, kids are learning their capabilities and limitations”. Mums sometimes spoil the fun with concern about sleep and cleanliness, but that’s just maternal instinct.

Daddy style play builds cognitive skills and helps children acquire social and emotional experience that prepares them for school, how to take turns, how to negotiate, regulate and understand feelings and how to be a leader. “Kids who learn these early social skills from their fathers do better with peers”

From our earliest moments in life fathers helps us face the world. Most Mothers prefer holding their infants towards them; babies find this safe and comforting. Fathers swap that feeling of security for a broader view letting babies notice the sights and sounds around them. Women think of nurturing as protecting and holding on to the child. What fathers do particularly well is promote children’s Independence and let go in a loving way.

Father’s Involvement:

When Fathers are involved in activities in school of their children, such as PTA meetings, sports day etc, the children gets encouraged and take part in more extracurricular activities. For fathers to spend more time with their kids, bring immediate as well as long term gains. Children of Involved dads are more popular, get on better with peers and are more empathetic.

• It is also found that teenagers with involved fathers are 80 per cent less likely to have been in jail, 75 per cent less likely to have troubles with the law and less likely to become unwed parents. And girls whose father takes an interest in what they do are more likely to stick with their extracurricular activities such as sports, music, arts, reading.

Mums and Dads are indeed different, but their distinctive styles of caretaking complement each other perfectly to the advantages of children.

“Dads involvement before the age of seven lays the ground for a lot of goodies later on”

N.B. For Divorced Fathers: Even when men don’t live in the same home with their kids their presence in their children’s lives is still vital. There is a saying there can be an ex-husband, but not an ex-father.