Fathers Making Sense of It All

This chapter examines the cultural frames and narratives fathers used to represent themselves, tell a coherent story about their lives, and project an identity of themselves into their futures. It was rare that their frames and narratives conveyed an understanding of the systemic class, racial, and ethnic inequalities and barriers that confront them. More generally, fathers were reactive to moralistic discourses that cast them as irresponsible, unreliable, negligent, deadbeat dads. They attempted to derive socially valued identities along a range of symbolic boundaries that included distinguishing themselves from fathers who relied on welfare, from fathers uninvolved in their children’s lives, and, most of all, from their own irresponsible, absent fathers. They adopted individualistic narratives about taking responsibility, “manning up,” and making fatherhood central to their lives. The men imagined themselves doing better and, in nearly all cases, being engaged fathers was at the center of these projected, hopeful constructions.