Father
A father is typically the biological male parent of an offspring. A father may fit into one or more of the following categories which are associated with different psychological, social and legal attitudes.
Categories
Biological (child possesses male parent's genes)
- Natural father - the most common category: child product of man and woman
- Surprise father - where the man did not know that there was a child until possibly years afterwards
- Posthumous father - father died before children were born (or even conceived)
- Child / teenage father - youthful father - may be associated with illegal sexual intercourse i.e. below the age of consent
- Non-parental father - unmarried father whose name does not appear on child's birth certificate: does not have legal responsibility but continues to have financial responsibility (UK)
- Sperm donor father - a genetic connection but man does not have legal or financial responsibility if conducted through licensed clinics (UK)
Non-biological (social / legal relationship between father and child)
- Step-father - wife/partner has child from previous relationship
- Father-in-law - the father of one's spouse
- Adoptive father - child is adopted
- Foster father - child is fostered
- Cuckolded father - where child is the product of mother's adulterous relationship
- Social father - where man takes de facto responsibility for a child. (In such a situation the child is known as a "child of the family" in English law.)
- Mother's partner - assumption that current partner fills father role
- Mother's wife - under some juridictions (e.g. in Quebec civil law), if the mother is married to another woman, the latter will be defined as the father
Fatherhood defined by contact level with child
- Weekend/holiday father - where child only stays with father at weekends etc.
- Absent father - father reluctant to spend time with the child(ren)
Legally fatherless children
- Where man in couple originally seeking IVF treatment withdraws consent before fertilisation (UK)
Terminology
The most familiar terms for father include dad, daddy, papa, and pa. Other colloquial expressions include: my old man.
Religion
Father is also the title given to Priests in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian Churches, as well as several other denominations. Father is the regular form of address used when speaking to or referring to priests from these churches.
The title Father is also applied to certain influential early Christian figures:
See also godfather.
See also
