Today is Father's Day, Sunday, June 15, 2014 and I would like to highlight my baby brother Jemahl Warford as Father of the Year! You see I am an only girl of 5 brothers who has watched all her brothers grow up and 4 out of 5 become fathers. Also to note is I raised my 2 now adult daughters as a singlemom, all but 3 years of their lives when I was married.
Therefore, I am writing this from the perspective of a singlemom who daughters didn't have their Father present in their lives. I watched my baby brother Jemahl enlist in the Army like me, get married have 2 daughters then watch his marriage dissolve into divorce.
Although, the divorce was hard on my brother; I saw him buckle down and do whatever was needed to remain an active parent in lives of his daughters. Something that a lot of men would not have done, especially because the divorce was less than friendly. Jemahl was broken but he refused to become a statistic -- deadbeat Dad would never ever be the title he earned.
He moved into an apartment complex where he could do odd maintenance jobs in exchange for an efficiency apartment, and low rent so that he could have a place to live. She kept the house along with custody of girls, then eventually getting remarried and starting over.
Jemahl didn't just walk away and allow the new husband to raise his daughters NO he remained more involved than ever; working and sacrificing to buy them the best of everything. At every sporting event, school meeting, you name it he was there doing it and more.
Parenting means dealing with the good and bad -- you see women when you have a Father that is doing his part you are obligated to support his decisions of tough love. You cause confusion and discontent between your children and Father when you are not on the same sheet of music. Never allow your children to play you against each other and manipulate you into pushing Father away because he's frustrated and refuses to deal with constant undermining.
The result could be -- a great Father like my baby brother Jemahl gets his spirit broken and decide to walk away leaving you to deal with the mess you created alone. There are plenty of great Father's but they should and MUST be supported otherwise you know how the story ends......
