ABSTRACT
These quotes speak to the special feelings of loss associated with a child’s feeling of abandonment by a father, or any parent. A litany of loss language surrounds many divorces. On many occa92
sions, the greatest sense of loss is caused by the absence of a father in the life of the child. There are books and movies with titles such as “Daddy Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “Where Is Daddy?,” and “Will Dad Ever Move Back Home?” In a smaller number of stories, the mother is absent, but usually she is the caretaker who is still available. Children mourn the loss of their parents, and there now is a substantial children’s literature on the loss of parents. Because most of the parental losses reported in this book (as well as by children of divorce in the general population) involve fathers, we focus in this chapter on the loss of a father because of divorce.
