Interesting opinion piece last week in the Austin American-Statesman. Ashley Sanchez writes about the obvious impact out-of-wedlock fatherhood and divorce have on the amount of time a dad is able to spend with his kids.

The Pew study found that 94 percent of fathers who live at least part of the time with their children ages 5-18 share meals with them several times a week, compared with only 16 percent of non-co-resident fathers. In fact, among fathers not living with their children, 57 percent reported that they had shared no meals with their children ages 5-18 during the previous 4 weeks.

You can look at that Pew study, titled “A Tale of Two Fathers,” here. Sanchez concludes:

Getting more fathers involved with their children is best accomplished by getting more men to form good marriages before becoming fathers….Americans have finally realized that it’s unhealthy for children to grow up without fathers. What we haven’t yet seemed to grasp is that the best antidote to absentee fathers is healthy marriage.

Of course, there’s more to fatherhood than sharing meals. And I know some divorced dads who work very hard to remain part of their kids’ lives. But it’s a pretty common-sense point: if you don’t live with your kids, you’re missing out on a lot.

Something else of note in the piece: I wasn’t aware that President Obama served as assistant coach last year on his daughter, Sasha’s, basketball team…despite the demands of his job. How would you like to be that team’s head coach? “Um…Mr. President? I’m thinking we should give Sasha a rest. Is that cool with you? Because if it’s not, I totally understand. Your call.”

What do you think? Is it fair to say the best fathers are happily married husbands?