For those of you that enjoyed your Father’s day weekend, the federal government wants to remind you that being a father isn’t all presents and cookouts. The job is far from over, and the government wants to help you out by giving you “tips” on how to be a better dad in the form of instructional videos and outreach programs.
Our government has released a website that is to be used as an instructional tool for all the would be fathers out there. The parenting tips can be found at www.fatherhood.gov and are brought to you by the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse. Fathers can go to the site to get involved with outreach programs with other fathers in their community. They can also share stories and thoughts on what it means to be a father on the DadTalk Blog.
It links to to the videos on the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Psychiatric Research Institute’s Web site that gives helpful hints for being a better father. Most of them are simple tasks to do with your children, like helping them develop healthy eating habits, brushing their teeth, washing hands and going to the library.
The site is funded with taxpayer money, and launched during the Clinton administration. It is currently being funded by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 and is intended for “the development, promotion, and distribution of a media campaign to encourage the appropriate involvement of parents in the life of any child and specifically the issue of responsible fatherhood, and the development of a national clearinghouse to assist states and communities in efforts to promote and support marriage and responsible fatherhood.”
These tips could possibly be helpful to people that don’t know how to do these things. But who really doesn’t know how to show a child how to brush their teeth, or how to read a book to them. Which raises the question, is this website at all necessary? It is everyone’s duty to be socially responsible and teach their children how to be a proper person, but does the government really need to get involved in this? Some are going to argue that social initiatives like this will ultimately help Americans move forward as a society, others are going to argue that this is just another way for the government to enter our households.
One thing is certain, no one has ever said their dad was a good father because the government showed him how.
[via: cnsnews.com]