All God's Children have Fathers...right?

When did we become a society where the best interests of the child are usurped by the rights of the father? So, if a man ducks out and moves around a lot, then he can avoid having to support his offspring in any manner….

Look at this way, even the first homo-sapien clans had a family structure that included a father who was the ‘provider’ of food and protection for not just the child and its mother, but for the small group as a whole. If the man went out in search of food, hunting, he brought back meat, as well as the other supplies made from animal leftover parts; hides, tusks, fat for oil. Anyways, he helped ensure the survival of his family, the women and children of the group. If, and this was a much larger risk than we can imagine today, the father, hunter, man were to die while in the line of duty, it was customary that another member of this family either ‘marry’ his wife or take over the responsibility of her welfare as well as any children in her care. A man need never let the fear of someone being able to provide for his family stand in the way of his duty.

So, as a hunter-gatherer more animalistic, more primitive human society, we took better care of our children. As it stands today, a man can father a child and then evade any and all responsibility for the children, and the laws established by civilization have enabled this to become the rule rather than the exception. In my case specifically, because he is receiving his income through VA disability, my child is not entitled to any of that money because it is like “welfare” as I was told by my case worker. But, if we were still kept house together, that income would go to help provide for the child’s everyday necessities, so why would that money not be considered a way for the man to help with the child?

I asked my case worker that if my ex-husband were to die, my child would receive Social Security benefits, right? She agreed, that she most certainly would, around $1000.00 a month. So, if my ex is dead, the child can receive the resources to survive and thrive, but if the father lives and does not work, the child is left to suffer. Am I the only one who thinks that there is something that is incredibly wrong with this picture? Civilization has evolved indeed, and in the process (I imagine it has something to do with the patriarchal infrastructure of our society) managed to remove the responsibility that a father has toward his child to be what he has always been throughout human history; a provider.