A ‘dad’ is tenth most popular Christmas list request for children in the UK, according to a new survey. .jpg)
In Britain, 40 percent of children are now born outside marriage. In Ireland the figure is 34 percent. Many have no contact with their fathers.
The poll of 2,000 British parents found most children will put a new baby brother or sister at the top of their Christmas list, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Second on the list for most children was a real-life reindeer.
A “pet horse” was the third most popular choice, with a “car” making an entry at number four.
However, the survey showed the tenth most popular Christmas wish on the list was a “Dad”.
Here, a leading figure in the Saint Vincent de Paul has said that absence of fathers in the lives of children is set to cause “huge problems”.
Brendan Dempsey, the southern regional president of the St Vincent de Paul Society (SVP) said nine out of 10 homes visited by SVP on one housing estate in Cork, were run by single mothers, he told The Examiner.
The effects on children were far-reaching, he continued. “There is a great need for children to have both parents, but it is not happening, there is a great want in these children,” said Mr Dempsey.
Mr Dempsey recalled going into a house and a tiny boy asking him: “Will you be my Daddy?”
“I am often asked ‘are you my Daddy’. That to me says there is a want,” he said.
A poll carried out in 2008 found that a ban on divorce is what most children would introduce if they ruled the world.
Marital splits were also named the second-worst thing in the world in the survey of under-10s.