The void that having two carers of the same sex was unable to fill led her to believe that,"the best and most successful family structure is one in which kids are being raised by both their mother and father."My father's absence created a huge hole in me, and I ached every day for a dad. I loved my mum's partner, but another mum could never have replaced the father I lost."

The briefs reveal children’s struggles with gender confusion, pressures to conform to gay values and attitudes, and feelings of isolation and sadness without being able to talk about those things with anyone.The inconsolable longing for the “missing” parent is another common theme.

Maternal influence was found to be the leading factor over whether children stayed on at school and went on to study at university and to social mobility within the family.

The mother and child relationship you create with your child during the earliest years will greatly influence the way your child behaves in social and emotional settings, especially in later years.

As a mother and the primary caregiver in your child’s earliest days, weeks and months, you are your child’s first link of any emotional bonding and attachment.

Boys show less aggression, less impulsivity, and more self-direction.

According to the Father Involvement Research Alliance review, girls with involved fathers have higher self-esteem, and teenage girls who are close to their dads are less likely to become pregnant.

At school, children of involved fathers do better academically. For example, a study by the U.S. Department of Education found that children of highly involved fathers were 43 percent more likely than other children to earn mostly As and 33 percent less likely to repeat a grade. They are also less likely to have behavior problems at school and to experience depression.

Toddlers with involved fathers are better problem-solvers and have higher IQs by age 3. They are more ready to start school and can deal with the stress of being away from home all day better than children with less involved fathers .

A review of studies by the Father Involvement Research Alliance shows that babies with more involved fathers are more likely to be emotionally secure, confident in new situations, and eager to explore their surroundings. As they grow, they are more sociable.

Four decades of research and hundreds of studies have proven what should be obvious to everyone: The more involved a dad is, the more successful his children will be. A father's influence can determine a child's social life, grades at school, and future achievements.

Even dads with average parenting skills can make a real impact on their children's lives

A new study that finds children of a gay or lesbian parent may be more likely to have social and emotional problems has sparked controversy on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate.

Even President Obama himself emphatically stated that children need fathers to keep them in school, out of poverty, and out of prison. President Obama concluded by lamenting that “the foundations of our community are weaker because” it lacks involved fathers.

he father’s involvement is linked to positive outcomes in education, physical health, and avoidance of juvenile delinquency. Children who “roughhouse with their fathers” learn that certain violent behavior is unacceptable. Fathers encourage exploration and discourage boys from “compensatory masculinity where they reject and denigrate all that is feminine and instead…engag[e] in domineering and violent behavior.”

The mother plays a critical role in a child’s neural development, communication, sense of security, problem solving, understanding and responding to feelings, and social ties to both friends and family.

The professors present a great deal of scholarship showing that mothering and fathering are different.

It is not simply the presence of two parents…but the presence of two biological parents that seems to support children’s development.… Experts have long contended that both mothers and fathers make unique contributions to parenting.

[T]he vast majority of [these] studies were based on samples of fewer than 100 parents (or children), and typically representative only of well-educated, white women (parents), often with elevated incomes. These are hardly representative samples of the lesbian and gay population raising children, and therefore not a sufficient basis to make broad claims about child outcomes of same-sex parenting structures. Thank you!

The main claim in favour of changing the law in this way is that the current law unfairly singles out people who experience same-sex attraction not allowing them to have the same status as people who are married.

After their legislature experimented with same-sex marriage, the people of California voted against the revisionist concept of marriage.

It is significant that everywhere the issue has been debated it begins on the issue of fairness and justice and with majority support

“I have seen that children in gay households often become props to be publicly displayed to prove that gay families are just like heterosexual ones.”

“Most adult children from gay households do not feel safe or free to publicly express their stories and life-long challenges; they fear losing professional licenses, not obtaining employment in their chosen field, being cut off from some family members or losing whatever relationship they have with their gay parent(s).

“There was no guarantee that any of my Dad’s partners would be around for long, and yet I often had to obey them,” she said. “My rights and innocence were violated.”

“I wasn’t surrounded by average heterosexual couples,” she says in her court brief.  “Dad’s partners slept and ate in our home, and they took me along to meeting places in the LGBT communities. I was exposed to overt sexual activities like sodomy, nudity, pornography, group sex, sadomasochism and the ilk.”

All four argued that redefining marriage to include same-sex couples would harm children by depriving them of a mother or father.

People often cite high costs as a reason for choosing unhealthy foods over nutritious meals.

He suggests finding a local farmer and trying to visit once a week. For minimal amounts of money, you will walk away with bags full of organic fresh produce.

“Food can’t be cheap. If it is, then it’s been forced to grow unnaturally fast or been doused in pesticides.”

As more people buy organic or sustainable food, he says, the prices should come down.

“Organic foods will always be more expensive because they are niche items and not mass produced,”

Buying cheap becomes a habit, it is learned behaviour... it leaves you in a trap.

As of Sept. 3, seven states put in orders to the USDA for about 2 million pounds of beef that may contain the controversial product for the meals they serve in the 2013-14 school year. At this time last year there were only three states — Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota — that had put in orders for beef that may contain lean finely textured beef.

But new government data show schools in four more states have since put aside concerns and resumed buying the controversial product.