Audio By Vocalize
Many men are searching for meaning in a world that no longer resembles the one their fathers prepared them to inhabit. [IStockphoto]
Whenever I attend Parents' Day, there is one moment that never leaves me. As I sit waiting for the programme to begin, my eyes instinctively wander across the audience.
I have attended Parents' Days for many years, both as a parent and as a Board of Management (BOM) member. One pattern has become impossible to ignore. The hall is almost always filled with mothers. Fathers are remarkably few. Sometimes I count them on my fingers.
I used to dismiss this as coincidence. I persuaded myself that the fathers were probably away on duty or engaged in equally important responsibilities. I was wrong. The pattern has persisted. Every empty chair where a father should have sat asks me the same question: Where did the fathers go?
