Two days before the inauguration, PARADE published a letter from Barack Obama to his ********* about what he hoped for them and all the *****ren of America. On this ******'s Day, we asked the President to reflect on what fatherhood means to him.
Here is an excerpt of President Obama's essay, which appears in this Sunday's issue of PARADE.
As the ****** of two young girls who have shown such poise, humor, and patience in the unconventional life into which they have been thrust, I mark this ******'s Day—our first in the White House—with a deep sense of gratitude.
I observe this ******'s Day not just as a ****** grateful to be present in my *********' lives but also as a *** who grew up without a ****** in my own life. My ****** left my ****** when I was 2 years old, and I knew him mainly from the letters he wrote and the stories my ****** told.
And while I was lucky to have two wonderful grandparents who poured everything they had into helping my ****** raise my ****** and me, I still felt the weight of his absence throughout my *****hood.
In many ways, I came to understand the importance of fatherhood through its absence—both in my life and in the lives of others. I came to understand that the hole a man leaves when he abandons his responsibility to his *****ren is one that no government can fill. We can do everything possible to provide good jobs and good schools and safe streets for our ****, but it will never be enough to fully make up the difference.
We need fathers to step up, to realize that their job does not end at conception; that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a ***** but the courage to raise one.
We need to step out of our own heads and tune in. We need to turn off the television and start talking with our ****, and listening to them, and understanding what's going on in their lives.
I know I have been an imperfect ******. I know I have made mistakes. I have lost count of all the times, over the years, when the demands of work have taken me from the duties of fatherhood. There were many days out on the campaign trail when I felt like my ****** was a million miles away, and I knew I was missing moments of my *********’ lives that I'd never get back. It is a loss I will never fully accept.
On this ******'s Day, I think back to the day I drove Michelle and a newborn Malia home from the hospital nearly 11 years ago—crawling along, miles under the speed limit, feeling the weight of my ********'s future resting in my hands. I think about the pledge I made to her that day: that I would give her what I never had—that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good ******.
http://www.parade.com/export/sites/default/news/2009/06/barack-obama-we-need-fathers-to-step-up.html