When a man has a descendant, he agrees to paternity.
Paternity is a concept that comes from the Latin paternitas and refers to the condition of being a father . This means that the man who has had a child agrees to paternity.
For example: "Fatherhood is a dream come true for me," "There are men for whom fatherhood is too much for them," "I never thought that fatherhood would change my life so much."
What is parenthood
Generally, paternity is used to name the quality of the father (man). In the case of women , the notion associated with being a mother is motherhood . However, depending on the context, paternity can name both the father and the mother.
It is important to highlight that fatherhood transcends the biological. Affiliation can occur through adoption , making the person the father of his or her child even when the latter is not his or her blood descendant. In a similar sense, the man who donates semen so that a woman can inseminate herself does not become the father of the future child.
Parenthood brings with it a series of obligations and responsibilities.
The importance of parenting
While the man who fathers or adopts a child is his father forever, fatherhood plays an especially important role during the child-rearing years. It is known that the most critical and determining experiences in a person's life take place up to four or five years of age; If the figures of their elders do not offer them the necessary love and care, wounds that cannot be erased may occur.
There are those who believe that we are all conditioned by our childhood, even by those seemingly unimportant situations that were buried deep in our memory . The fears that are difficult to explain, the emotional blocks, the difficulties in relating to other people and the lack of confidence in ourselves come from our earliest childhood, from that time in which we depended on our parents to survive and to learn to understand the world.
Failures in paternity
Unfortunately, not all children are born into families who are willing to love them and raise them with patience and care. Regardless of the configuration of the family group (which can be made up of one or two men, one or two women, or a man and a woman), the role of paternity seems to receive less importance as humanity advances ; The need to succeed and ascend in social hierarchies tends to distance human beings from their roots, from their emotions, and leads them to prioritize material goods over emotional ties.
Another phenomenon that affects childrearing is premature parenthood (also called precocious ), which occurs when adolescents become parents. This situation, very common in some parts of the world, is serious and harmful for various reasons, such as that these people do not usually complete their secondary education, which, combined with the fact of not having reached the age of majority, gives them little possibilities of getting a job and taking charge of their new responsibilities .
Taking into account that parenthood in adulthood presents endless difficulties and unforeseen events, it goes without saying that in adolescence, when one does not yet have the necessary maturity to take charge of one's own life, it can become a real nightmare, both for parents as well as children.
A spiritual or symbolic relationship
Fatherhood, on the other hand, can be spiritual or symbolic . In the field of religion , the leader or guide of a congregation is usually considered the "father" of the faithful. In this sense, the pope of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church is usually named as Holy Father .
It is also possible to talk about paternity to name the creator of a work, a style, an achievement, etc.: "Kurt Cobain was the father of grunge," "The father of jazz fusion will arrive in the country to present his new album."