You may remember in 2008 when, then Presidential-hopeful, Barack Obama gave a Father's Day speech to a church in Chicago. In it, he made reference to the importance of fathers (particularly African-American fathers) to be more involved in the raising of their children.

Single parent households are on the rise. Simply put, THIS HAS TO STOP!!!! How dare a man lay with a woman, plant his seed and not stick around to take care of the result! Just because she bore that child and labored through the delivery, that child is 50 percent his. He has a 50 percent responsibility to take care and provide for HIS child. That child needs to know who they are and 50 percent of who they could be in life should come from their father. 50 percent of the unconditional love that they receive in life, should come from their fathers. 50 percent of their discipline should be issue by their fathers. So what's the problem? What is it that causes a man, who knows of his child's existence to be absent.

You know what I think??? I think it all boils down to selfishness. Why is he not there? Because he simply wants to do his own thing (hang out with friends, chase a career, chase after a woman, etc.). The bottom line is that I don't think that ANYTHING should come before your child. Not even a disagreement with the mother. I strongly believe in marriage between the mother and father of a child, but I realize that this is not always a reality in today's society. Having said that...it doesn't matter if you are with the mother or not. A father's role should never be based on his relationship with the mother. It should be based on his desire to FULLY provide what his child needs from him.

Oh and just in case you're a "baby-daddy" paying child support or some sort of monetary amount to financially support your children and think that you're doing enough...remember it's LOVE, TIME then MONEY!