Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.

Single dad

Single dads are a majority of the population when it comes to the western world and are often times found looking out for partners and trying to raise their kids in a financially sound environment.  They are often logged into dating sites and are on the look out for the perfect match.  They also form a special bond with their kids and understandably so because their children grow up with these dads during most of their childhood and get to spend a lot of time during this crucial initial period of maturity and mental development. Their children are the ones that are most attached to these dads and because there is a vacuum left in the family because of the lack of the mother figure in their lives the father has to fill that void in their lives.  Single dads are usually the ones who take care of the family members and teach their children on ways to look after their younger siblings and form a protective barrier within the family so that all of the family members are given the right amount of attention and care.

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Single dads have to manage their times appropriately between their family members because they have a lot on their plates and generally are seen to be  busy bees, running around and managing their life between their professional and personal lives.  They have their own personal needs which need to be catered and they might need to take care of their own needs and strike the right balance in this area and at the same time they should not make their kids feel isolated and in the dark without proper care, so these folks need to exercise lot of caution in the way they balance things.  Single dads are also subject to some level of social stigma in the society as they are looked down upon by some of their friends because they don’t have a partner.  They usually are not first on the list of people who get invited to social gatherings and parties, so they constantly have this sense of longing in order to fill the void in their lives and complete the family circle by getting a suitable mate.

They might have lost their partner due to various reasons and these may include loss of a partner due to an accident or they might have been divorced for reason or the other due to certain circumstances in their lives.  They also might have adopted other kids for reasons of compassion and not be able to cope up with parenting the child all alone and they might eventually come to a realization that parenting cannot be managed all alone and there is definite need for a partner for additional emotional and financial support that the child may require.  They also are seen reading a lot on how effectively they can manage their time between the family and other obligations to their professional life which might be consuming most of their time and keeping them busy.  They usually try to complete all their work in the office and don’t carry their professional baggage into their living rooms because they need to keep things separate in order to keep things in balance and devote meaningful to their children in order for them to excel in their education and view their overall success as being able to find a meaningful compromise in all these areas.  Success to these single dads does not just mean excelling professionally but also making their family members excel and have a meaningful overall success taking everyone in their families into account.

Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.