Sometimes forgetting your father is better than having him around. Not having your father around can be very challenging growing up. For one, you don’t have someone to teach you about life. You don’t have a father to shape you into a better person. Unfortunately, a friend of mine doesn’t have a father figure, but in his case, it’s better for his father to not be around, in order for him to be a better person.

My friend's father used drugs such as meth. Due to his father's mistakes, every single person in his life suffered in some type of way. His mother had to make some tough decisions. She took her kids out of the house and stayed at her brothers. For my friend, this situation was hard for a toddler. The older he got, the more he understood what had happened. He’d rather know now than being around toxic people.

My friend's father ended up hurting another person in the family, his brother. His brother was abused by his father. At this time, my friend was still young, but he was still affected. He felt helpless, he couldn’t do anything to help. He might not have gone through it but having a loved one suffer still hurts. No one deserves to go through any type of abuse. His father should have shown a better version of himself to his kids.

After they left the house, they left my friend's father behind and moved on. This came with a lot of confusion growing up. This has affected my friend in a couple of ways. He isn’t as social in school. He sees the world in a distinct way. He believes he will not be able to forgive his father, even if his father apologized. In the end, my friend is glad he didn’t have his father around.

Value the things you have, and don’t think about the things you don’t have. Knowing your father was a bad person and wasn’t present is really hard. My friend's family went through so much due to one person. They had to let him go because being with him or close to him would have caused them more trouble. In this world having a single parent can be challenging. Kids don’t receive everything they need to grow up properly. We need to change the way kids grow up. We need to do something about the thing that is stealing our parents away from us. We need to do something about addiction. Parents should be determined to show their kids the good things about the world and not only the bad.