Denzel I Think You've Got It Wrong

I think it’s easier for us who grew up with two present parents, especially within a patriarchal society, to scapegoat absent fathers as the reason why kids get into problems early and stay having issues for a long time afterwards.

It makes me wonder how families where only the mother is present feel, as they are both blamed and at the same time their contribution towards their own children’s upbringing negated. I fear the same can be said about families where only the father is present, however, is it noticeable that single mothers bear the brunt of the societal furrowed brow.

Single cases do not a pattern make, but I would argue that even within extended families, we can see examples where women brought up children with no help from their fathers. My father is a case in point, he was brought up by women, no father present, though he may have had other male role-models, he credits his grandmother for raising him and his siblings.

The system doesn’t lock up seven-year-olds. – Denzel Washington

I’m definitely not feeling Denzel on these proclamations, everyone has their lived experience that considerably shapes their perceptions, but nah, think Denzel has missed out a fair few things here. To exclude the system from the formative years of young people, boys, in particular, is naive at best, at worst it’s calculating. In the same way perhaps as those who voted Leave.

It’s not the presence of a father in the home that helps to steer young people I would argue, it’s the presence of an alternative, a different way, if a young person can be enlightened to a different way of being, given hope and aspiration, THAT is the thing that will keep them away from incarceration.