Not only do fathers have to step up to be a parent, but if they aren't ready, then they have to pay loads of money to the mother for child support. This makes fathers able to be easily manipulated by the mothers, which sadly happens way too frequently. When a divorce happens, the father tends to care about only the children, which the mother knows. The mother doesn't have to do anything, all she does is collect the child support payments. The father has to work harder to be able to sustain a life and just to even get the chance to see his child again. Whenever people see or hear about a fatherless child, they tend to lean towards the mother's side, which makes the father automatically at a disadvantage when battling for custody. They don't think about how the father feels. Maybe he wasn't financially ready to raise a child, maybe he wasn't mentally ready for a child. They only think about how terrible the father is for not being in his child/children's life.

Studies by TIME magazine and KIDSVT show that:

• In 2011, only 61% of child support payments were made by men to the mothers of their children.

• 30% do not receive any agreed-upon payments.

• 5 out of 6 single-parent households are headed by the Mom

• Of 36 million fathers of 74 million American children under the age of 18, 9 million do not live with all of their minor children most or all of the time.

• Fatherless children are much more likely to do poorly in school, act out, abuse drugs, and commit crimes.

The last part is so important and many people don't realize it. The sad cycle has become all too common in today's society.

Father cannot afford to be in child's life -> Child grows up without a dad -> New Father has a child but can't afford to be in their life -> New Father has to pay child support to mother -> Repeat