Father

A father is typically the biological male parent of an offspring.

Human

In many cultures, especially traditional western, a father is usually the
husband in a married couple. His role in the family is celebrated on
Father's Day.

Many times fathers have a very important role in raising offspring and the
title can be given to a non-biological father that fills this role. This is
common in step-fathers (male married to biological mother). In most family
structures the father is both a biological parent and a primary caregiver.

In East Asian and Western traditional families, fathers are the heads of the
families, which means that his duties including providing financial support
and making critical decisions, some of which must be obeyed without question
by the rest of the family members.

As with cultural concepts of family, the specifics of a father's role vary
according to cultural mores. In what some sociologists term the "bourgeois
family", which arose out of typical 16th- and 17th-century European
households and is often considered the "traditional Western" structure, the
father's role has been somewhat limited. In this family model the father
acts as the economic support and sometimes disciplinarian of the family,
while the mother or other female relative oversees most of the childrearing.
This structure is reflected, for example, in societies which legislate
"maternity leave" but do not have a corresponding "paternity leave."

However, this limited role has increasingly been called into question. Both
feminist and masculist authors have decried such predetermined roles as
unjust. A nascent fathers' rights movement seeks to increase the legal
standing of fathers in everything from child-custody cases to the
institution of paid paternity or "family" leave.

Dad, daddy, pop and pa are some common or familiar words for a father. Many
times these terms denote affection or a paternal role in a child's life. The
father may only be the biological parent: "Anyone can be a father, but it
takes someome special to be a Dad." As such, someone can be a father and not
a dad, or a dad and not a father.

In the case of a stepfather when a child calls them dad this often indicates
the child has finally accepted them in the loving parental role.

Other Animals

For some animals, it is the father who take care of the young.

   * Some male frogs carry unhatched eggs on its back, such as Gastrotheca,
     Hemiphractus, Flectonotus, and Fritziana. Darwin frog (Rhinoderma
     darwini) fathers carry eggs in the vocal pouch.
   * Unlike most birds, it is the Emperor Penguin fathers who sit on top of
     the nests.

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