For generations, it has been said and proven that the presence of both parents within the household cultivates a young child and prepares them for the future. The mother's role in the life of her children is to nurture and help them develop into fully functioning adults. The father, leader of the family, is the provider and disciplinarian. He's most influential in the lives of his children, exemplifying a positive male figure for which they can observe and model from. However, when the family is deprived of the father their lives, they are denied vital lessons and experiences needed in the development of the children and erodes the family structure. The absence of the African American male in the household negatively affects the lives of his family. Without a father figure guiding the child, the son is susceptible to the abominations of the world for direction. The daughter tends to cling to her interpretation of a positive male, which is normally skewed.
             The son is sensitized to the corruption of the outside world when the father is not present in his life. The father's role in the life of his son directly affects his development into adulthood. A good
             African American father teaches his son to be hardworking, caring, wise, intelligent, and able to withstand and continue to function when life becomes rocky. When that positive reinforcement leaves prematurely or is void completely, the son is left naked for the rottenness of society to take hold of him. "Young men from one-parent families are about 1.5 times as likely to be out of school and out of work as young men from two-parent homes" (McLanahan). Because the father is not present, the son could then become lazy, naive, and unwilling to better himself. Thus, the absence of the father in the life of his son creates a weak, unintelligent male unable to be successful in life.
             When the father isn't present in the life of his daughter, she tends to look for her menta...