Father, Children Relation

The first text is from a newspaper, The Guardian, and it is a report covering an interview with a very rich father concerning his daughters. The second text is a screenshot of a website of an organization called ''National Fatherhood Initiative'' which is concerned with fathers and children.

In the first text, in the introduction, the writter gives some information about Bernie Ecclestone and his daughters, some background. The second text is a post whose headline reads ''Are You Trying to Rob Your Kids?''. It is posted on the organization’s website. Above the post there is a short text which introduces you to the organization and to its mission and goal which is ''To improve the well-being of children by increasing the proportion of children growing up with involved, responsible, and committed fathers''.

In the first text, the writer, gives some information about Bernie Eccleston, quotes himself asking Bernie questions, makes a conclusion from a statement or an answer from Bernie Eccleston and supports his conclusion by quoting. He also describes Bernie Eccleston's mood: ''he says with a despairing sigh'' – regarding Tamara’s TV performance. As for the second text, a parable is put forward through a short story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, and to give a social lesson. National Fatherhood Initiative uses a clever device to show that fathers build up trust, love and understanding by ‘investing’ in their children and making ‘deposits’ – by spending, not money or expensive toys and gifts, but their time with them, reading bed-time stories, attending their football and baseball games and class concerts at school, taking them fishing, bicycling, any activity that children are engaged in, thereby being present in their lives as much as possible.

Bernie Ecclestone's idea of fatherhood is to throw money at his daughters. For example, Tamara was given a 45 million Pound house in London. When she starred as herself in a TV show called ‘Billionairess Girl’, she portrayed herself as an extravagant shopaholic. Bernie was angry when he watched part of one episode, he could not bear to watch the whole show. He blamed the producers for "winding up" his daughter to be as shallow and materialistic as possible. He evaded all responsibility for spoiling and over-indulging Tamara and her sister who had a 12 million Pound wedding in England, and lived in a $54 million house in Los Angeles. Consciously or unconsciously, Bernie was advertising his own wealth by spending massive amounts of money on his daughters.

The first text shows how not to raise children, through the complete abdication of responsibility by Bernie Ecclestone, believing that substituting money for attention is sufficient. The second text is both a warning and a how-to guide on how to be a good father, a good parent by building up trust and love, – by spending time, the most precious commodity of all, with their children, not money.

In their different ways, both texts are concerned with how fathers bring up their children and their moral responsibilities.