To nurture, guide and instill with the aim of seeing children maximize their life's highest potential for success and happiness. This involves many things that include, to the greatest extent possible trying to offer:
- A life filled with culturally enriching experiences.
- The best possible education that I think is maximized with access to technology in the home, support for extra-curricular involvement, working to get them in the best schools and making learning entertaining.
- Spiritual guidance, both taught and caught through example.
- Installation of values
- Self-esteem and confidence building.
- Stable home life.
- Support for proper nutrition and health
- Monitoring influences and supporting the positive while blocking the negative.
- etc.
I also think society shows and the Bible also supports the idea that intact 2 parent homes provide the best home environments, all things being equal. The most obvious reason is raising kids properly with the aim of seeing the best possible life outcomes is work. In 2014 most people work fulltime jobs outside of the home in order to afford the necessities of life. It takes 2 parents just to have the manpower (or womanpower
) to effectively do all the work of parenting.
I also think there are some innate abilities only a mother can contribute in the child rearing experience and certain innate abilities only a father can contribute. For example recent research has shown girls respect the advise the get from her mother. This is especially true when encouraging adolescent girl to delay becoming sexuality active and overall advice in relationships, provided she has a close relationship with her mother that is not likely to exist if she grows up in another home. Boys learn to respect and defend women based on how he witnesses his father relate to his mother and sisters. Girls who don't have a healthy relationship with her father often seek the affirmation and affection of males often in inappropriate ways often with numerous partners in revolving door fashion and/or are exploited by older men. Some boys are wired to only see legitimate leadership as coming from a male. If there is no father present, those males will never truly respect the leadership of their mother in the home and extension her discipline and might even gravitate to embracing the leadership of gang leaders.
Of course, there are exceptions. There are kids who come from horrible backgrounds are turned of successful. There are kids who have every advantage in life and have had horrible life outcomes. Just talking about the most likely outcomes.