father

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Father with child

A father (or dad) is defined as a male parent of any type of offspring. The adjective "paternal" refers to father, parallel to "maternal" for mother. The verb "to father" means to procreate or to sire a child from which also derives the gerund "fathering". Fathers determine the gender of their child through a sperm cell which either contains an X chromosome (female), or Y chromosome (male).

Relationship with children

Traditionally, fathers act in a protective, supportive and responsible way towards their children. Involved fathers offer developmentally specific provisions to their sons and daughters throughout the life cycle and are impacted themselves by their doing so. Active father figures may play a role in reducing behavior and psychological problems in young men and women. An increased amount of father–child involvement may help increase a child's social stability, educational achievement, and even their potential to have a solid marriage as an adult. The children may also be more curious about the world around them and develop greater problem solving skills. A "dad" does not always have to be a child's biological father and some children will have a biological father and a step or nurturing father. When the biological father dies, or divorces, the mother may marry a second one who becomes the stepfather of the child. Where a child is conceived as a result of sperm donation, the child may have a nurturing father.

According to the anthropologist Maurice Godelier, the parental role assumed by human males is a critical difference between human society and that of humans' closest biological relatives—chimpanzees and bonobos—who appear to be unaware of their "father" connection.

Determination of parenthood

Since Roman times fatherhood has been determined with this famous sentence: Mater semper certa; pater est quem nuptiae demonstrant ("The [identity of the] mother is always certain; the father is whom the marriage vows indicate"). The historical approach has been destabilised with the recent emergence of accurate scientific testing, particularly DNA testing. As a result, the law on fatherhood is undergoing rapid changes.

Like mothers, human fathers may be categorized according to their biological, social or legal relationship with the child. Historically, the biological relationship paternity has been determinative of fatherhood. However, proof of paternity has been intrinsically problematic and so social rules often determined who would be regarded as a father, e.g. the husband of the mother.

An individual who is a genetic chimera could theoretically have more than one biological father. No example of this has been reported but human chimeras were unknown to exist until recently and scientists are currently uncertain as to the extent of chimerism within the human population.

Categories

Father with two children

• Natural/biological father – the most common category: child product of man and woman
• Birth father – the biological father of a child who, due to adoption or parental separation, does not raise the child or cannot take care of one.
• Surprise father – where the men did not know that there was a child until possibly years afterward
• Posthumous father – father died before children were born (or even conceived in the case of artificial insemination)
• Teenage father/youthful father – associated with teenage sexual intercourse
• Non-parental father – unmarried father whose name does not appear on child's birth certificate: does not have legal responsibility but continues to have financial responsibility (UK)
• Sperm donor – the natural/biological father of the child but the man does not have legal or financial responsibility if procedure conducted through licensed clinics
• Baby Daddy – slang term for several of the above categories. Denotes a natural father; implies that he is not married to the natural mother of the child, bears financial responsibility, may or may not imply other parental responsibilities, to inclusde the absent father (see below).

Non-biological (social and legal relationship between father and child)

• Stepfather – wife or husband has child from previous relationship
• Father-in-law – the father of one's spouse
• Adoptive father – a father who has adopted a child
• Foster father – child is raised by a man who is not the biological or adoptive father usually as part of a couple.
• Cuckolded father – where the child is the product of the mother's adulterous relationship
• Social father – where a man takes de facto responsibility for a child, such as caring for one who has been abandoned or orphaned (the child is known as a "child of the family" in English law)
• Mother's partner – assumption that current partner fills father role
• Mother's husband – under some jurisdictions (e.g. in Quebec civil law), if the mother is married to another man, the latter will be defined as the father
• DI Dad – social/legal father of children produced via Donor Insemination (where a donor's sperm were used to impregnate the DI Dad's spouse)

Fatherhood defined by contact level with child

A dad with his newborn son.

• Weekend/holiday father – where child(ren) only stay(s) with father on weekends, holidays, etc.
• Absent father – father who cannot or will not spend time with his child(ren)
• Second father – a non-parent whose contact and support is robust enough that near parental bond occurs (often used for older male siblings who significantly aid in raising a child)
• Stay-at-home dad – the male equivalent of a housewife with child, where his spouse is breadwinner
• Where man in couple originally seeking IVF treatment withdraws consent before fertilisation (UK)
• Where the apparently male partner in an IVF arrangement turns out to be legally a female (evidenced by birth certificate) at the time of the treatment (UK) (TLR 1 June 2006)
• Biological father – the natural father, or procreator of a child, who may or may not take part in the child's up-bringing. Often refers to a sperm donor who, if anonymous, will have no contact with the child
  A biological child of a man who, for the special reason above, is not their legal father, has no automatic right to financial support or inheritance. Legal fatherlessness refers to a legal status and not to the issue of whether the father is now dead or alive.

Non-human fatherhood

For some animals, it is the fathers who take care of the young.

• Darwin's Frog (Rhinoderma darwini) fathers carry eggs in the vocal pouch.
• Most male waterfowls are very protective in raising their offspring, sharing scout duties with the female. Examples are the geese, swans, gulls, loons, and a few species of ducks. When the families of most of these waterfowls travel, they usually travel in a line and the fathers are usually the ones guarding the offspring at the end of the line while the mothers lead the way.
• The female seahorse (hippocampus) deposits eggs into the pouch on the male's abdomen. The male releases sperm into the pouch, fertilizing the eggs. The embryos develop within the male's pouch, nourished by their individual yolk sacs.
• Male Emperor Penguins alone incubate their eggs; females do no incubation. Rather than building a nest, each male protects his egg by balancing it on the tops of his feet, enclosed in a special brood pouch. Once the eggs are hatched however, the females will rejoin the family.
• Male beavers secure their offspring along with the females during their first few hours of their lives. As the young beavers mature, their fathers will teach them how to search for materials to build and repair their own dams, before they disperse to find their own mates.
• Wolf fathers help feed, protect, and play with their pups. In some cases, several generations of wolves live in the pack, giving pups the care of grandparents, aunts/uncles, and siblings, in addition to parents. The father wolf is also the one who does most of the hunting when the females are securing their newborn pups.
• Dolphin fathers help in the care of the young. Newborns are held on the surface of the water by both parents until they are ready to swim on their own.
• A number of bird species have active, caring fathers who assist the mothers, such as the waterfowls mentioned above.
• Apart from humans, fathers in few primate species care for their young. Those that do are tamarins and marmosets.^[1] Particularly strong care is also shown by siamangs where fathers carry infants after their second year.^[1] In titi and owl monkeys fathers carry their infants 90% of the time with "titi monkey infants developing a preference for their fathers over their mothers".^[2] Silverback gorillas have less role in the families but most of them serve as an extra protecting the families from harm and sometimes approaching enemies to distract them so that his family can escape unnoticed.

Many species,^{[citation needed]} though, display little or no paternal role in caring for offspring. The male leaves the female soon after mating and long before any offspring are born. It is the females who must do all the work of caring for the young.

• A male bear leaves the female shortly after mating and will kill and sometimes eat any bear cub he comes across, even if the cub is his. Bear mothers spend much of their cubs' early life protecting them from males. (Many artistic works, such as advertisements and cartoons, depict kindly "papa bears" when this is the exact opposite of reality.)
• Domesticated dog fathers show little interest in their offspring, and unlike wolves, are not monogamous with their mates and are thus likely to leave them after mating.
• Male lions will tolerate cubs, but only allow them to eat meat from dead prey after they have had their fill. Few are quite cruel towards their young and may hurt or kill them with little provocation.^{[citation needed]} A male who kills another male to take control of his pride will also usually kill any cubs belonging to that competing male. However, it is also the males who are responsible for guarding the pride while the females hunt. It should also be noted however that the male lions are the only felines that actually have a role in fatherhood.
• Male rabbits generally tolerate kits but unlike the females, they often show little interest in the kits and are known to play rough with their offsprings when they are mature, especially towards their sons. This behaviour, however, may also be part of an instinct to drive the young males away in order to prevent incest matings between the siblings. The females will eventually disperse from the warren as soon as they mature but the father does not drive them off like he normally does to the males.
• Horse stallions have little to no role in parenting, nor are they monogamous with their mates. They will tolerate foals to a certain extent, but because of their aggressive stallion nature, they are generally annoyed by the energetic exuberance of foals, and may hurt or even kill foals. Thus, stud stallions are not kept in the same pen as their foals or other mares.

Finally, in some species neither the father nor the mother provides any care.

• This is true for most insects and fish.

See also

Father can also refer metaphorically to a person who is considered the founder of a body of knowledge or of an institution. In such context the meaning of "father" is similar to that of "founder". See List of persons considered father or mother of a field.

Look up father in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fathers

• Father complex
• Fathers' rights movement
• The Guy's Guide to Surviving Pregnancy, Childbirth and the First Year of Fatherhood (book)
• Misattributed paternity
• Mother
• Paternal bond
• Responsible fatherhood
• Sociology of fatherhood
• Sperm donation
• Patricide

References

Bibliography

• S. Kraemer (1991) "The Origins of Fatherhood: An Ancient Family Process"^{[dead link]}. Family Process 30 (4), 377–392. doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.1991.00377.x
• M.J. Diamond (2007) My Father Before Me; How Fathers and Sons Influence Each Other Throughout Their Lives. New York: WW Norton.