I would only say to you that IF you decide to take this on, and do so without someone to provide a decent "father figure" then know that you have to take on that role, too, that it will be YOUR responsibility to show that little boy how to be a decent man, one who respects himself and others, particularly women, which you can show by always BEING a woman he can respect. Or, should it be a girl, vice versa - it will be YOUR responsibility to show that little girl how to be a decent woman, one who respects herself and others, particularly men, which, along with the things you would do to show a son respect for women, you can show by respecting men yourself.
This reminds of a book I happen to love called "Fatherless America".
My response is simple, a woman can not teach a man about being a man. I understand what you are saying here, but I have just worked with way too many children and adults with every type of social service issue you can imagine and I would say 90% of them had NO FATHER in their lives. When I counseled them, the overwhelming theme was the missing of having that father in their life, even when the mother had the best of intentions.
And this is not knocking the women who are raising their children, etc, but I have to tell you something, the woman I am today is a direct result of my father taking his role seriously and being in my life. He taught me things that my mother could not, he gave me that balance, he taught me strength, he taught me how to interact with another man, to trust it, to understand the fundamentals of having a man in my life that would be there for me through thick and thin. You can't knock that, every study proves that the most well rounded people have a two parent household or a father figure.
If you are coming into a situation with an option, why would you willingly discount the importance of a father figure?? This isn't a situation where someone accidently gets pregnant or someone loses their father through an accident, this is someone saying, "maybe a father is not important to raising a child because I just have this need to have a baby (no offense LouBelle)" and I strongly object to discounting the father. I have also seen women have three and four children, no father, for selfish reasons of thinking that this child was going to give the love that they lost in their life or fulfill some need and I have to tell, it just seems very selfish to me.
Now I don't want to debate this back and forth, but I saw that and I needed to say my thoughts on it.
