Greetings from President Obama on Father’s Day

Sunday is Father’s Day and President Barack Obama in his weekly address to the nation spoke about this special day recognizing the special role fathers have in families.

He said that being a dad is sometimes his hardest job, but also the most rewarding. He talked on a personal note about growing up without a dad and wondering how his life would have been different if his father had been around. Yes, he was lucky to have a devoted mother and great grandparents who were in his life, but he admits to feeling the absence of his dad. As a consequence he feels all the more committed to being there for his own children although his job sometimes makes it difficult to always be as involved as he should be in the lives of his kids and admits the burden of dealing with the children has sometimes fallen more heavily on his wife Michelle.

"I felt his absence. And I wonder what my life would have been like had he been a greater presence," the president said. "That’s why I’ve tried so hard to be a good dad for my own children. I haven’t always succeeded, of course — in the past, my job has kept me away from home more often than I liked, and the burden of raising two young girls would sometimes fall too heavily on Michelle."

The president points out he’s learned that what children need most is their parents’ time and a structure that instills self-discipline and responsibility, saying that even in the White House, Malia and Sasha do their chores and walk the dog. "Above all, children need our unconditional love," the president said, "whether they succeed or make mistakes; when life is easy and when life is tough."

Published on Jun 18, 2011 by whitehouse

Weekly Address: Celebrating Fathers

On Father’s Day weekend, President Obama reflects on his experience as a parent and discusses the challenges and necessity of being a good father.

References

Wikipedia: Barack Obama

Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now called Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is the first President to have been born in Hawaii. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kansas and was of mostly English descent. His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya. Obama’s parents met in 1960 in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student on scholarship. The couple married on February 2, 1961, separated when Obama Sr. went to Harvard University on scholarship, and divorced in 1964. Obama Sr. remarried and returned to Kenya, visiting Barack in Hawaii only once, in 1971. He died in an automobile accident in 1982.

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Fatherhood.Gov

About the President’s Fatherhood and Mentoring Initiative

Fatherlessness is a growing crisis in America, one that undergirds many of the challenges that families are facing. When dads aren’t around, young people are more likely to drop out of school, use drugs, be involved in the criminal justice system, and become young parents themselves.

President Obama has said that being a father to Malia and Sasha is the most important job he has. At the same time, growing up without a dad himself, the President understands firsthand the holes that fathers leave in their families when they are absent. The President is joining with fathers across the nation to send a strong message about personal responsibility and ‘stepping up to the plate,’ while supporting fathers who want to be there for their kids, even dads facing challenges in their lives. That’s what the President’s Fatherhood and Mentoring Initiative is all about.

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