Get this: Dads are essential to kids.According to the National Fatherhood Initiative, kids who grow up without dads are more likely to grow up poor, drop out of school, end up in jail and encounter numerous other struggles in life than kids who grow up with dads do.This information comes as no shock to most men. We know that boys are prone to stupidity and that the creature best suited to taming them is the like-minded fellow called dad.When I was five, my father told me to stop jumping around the tub, but I did so anyway. I slipped and hit my head on a ceramic soap dish.