The Father’s Bill of Rights©
Dawn Elaine Bowie, Esquire

Having established that our children are this planet’s most precious resource, we hereby affirm that children everywhere have an inalienable right to the richest and most positive experience possible with two healthy, adult parents who each provide the child with positive maternal and paternal role models.

Preamble

A successful society respects the roles, influence and experience of children to both fathers and mothers.

Children need and deserve the nurturance, love, time, energy, support and attention of fathers as well as mothers.

The legal system in America has become unbalanced in recognizing and rewarding the place and importance of the American father in the lives of children.

It is time to refocus our emphasis in the American family to give fathers the recognition and support they need to take their rightful place in the lives of their children, to define paternal obligations and expect American fathers to live up to them.

Universal Rights

1. Fathers have the right to be assured of their parentage when their children are born, without respect to their legal relationship with the mothers of their children.

2. Fathers have the right to equal time in, and access to, the lives of their children. This is true without respect to their legal status to the mothers of their children.

3. Fathers have the right to the same economic benefits as mothers, provided they are willing to invest an equivalent amount of energy and attention on their children as do mothers.

4. Fathers have the right to the same parenting resources as do mothers, including financial, educational and community support.

5. Fathers have the right to participate in decisions affecting the health, education and religious training of their children, and the right to enforce that right with the judicious use of mental health counseling, and mediation services.

6. Fathers have the right to the same legal benefits upon the dissolution of a marriage as do mothers, provided they have invested an equivalent amount of energy and attention to the family as have mothers.

7. Fathers have the right to have the courts consider both the quality, and the quantity, of their parental investment in custody determinations.

8. Fathers have the right to access to justice and the legal system in a degree equivalent to that enjoyed by mothers, to be free from family violence and to be taken seriously when the mothers of their children commit it, against them or against their children, to the same right to privacy with respect to protection from violent partners as do mothers, and to respect and courtesy from law enforcement, legal professionals, and the judicial system, as do mothers, when they complain of family violence or child abuse.

Universal Obligations

1. Fathers are obligated to be present for their children at every stage of development.

2. Fathers are obligated to work cooperatively with mothers in the support of their children, economically, emotionally, physically, and educationally.

3. Fathers are obligated to fulfill their economic responsibilities to their children to the best of their ability, contributing to their children’s medical care and educational needs and providing that the economic needs of their children are met before those of any other adult in the event of their death.

4. Fathers are obligated to offer respect and courtesy to the mothers of their children, insofar as is possible, and to do everything possible to avoid damaging the relationship between their children and the mothers of their children

5. Fathers are obligated to educate themselves about the care and feeding of their children in all aspects of their children’s lives.

6. Fathers are obligated to be sexually responsible so that they do not bring children into this world without being prepared to fulfill the role and responsibilities of father.

7. Fathers are obligated to develop the full range of parenting skills unique to them as male role models to their own children, and to the community and to use all their skills and abilities to nurture, protect, and encourage their children to become healthy adults who make the world a better place by their presence.

8. Fathers are obligated to use their best efforts to pass on their unique skills and abilities in living (whether in sports, academia, profession, or trade) to their children and to train their children, by example and formal education, in the economic realities of adult responsibilities.

9. Fathers are obligated to use their best efforts to understand the weaknesses and strengths of their relationships with their own fathers and to pass on their wisdom to their children so that they may better cultivate the father-child relationship for future generations.

The Father’s Bill of Rights©
Dawn Elaine Bowie, Esquir