The phrase "a poor father" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a father who is lacking in some way, whether financially, emotionally, or in terms of parenting skills.
Example: "Despite his best efforts, he felt like a poor father for not being able to provide for his children."
Alternatives: "an inadequate father" or "a struggling father."
'What's wrong, Dad?' " 'I just think I'm a poor father,' I said sniffling.
If a poor father pays child support to the state, it typically keeps the money to pay itself back for welfare benefits paid to his children.
In January, Siohvaughn Wade made allegations including that Mr. Wade had had an affair and that he was a poor father.
He had been born of Native and African-American blood in Seattle to a poor father who cared moderately for his son and a mother whom he adored but barely knew, and who died when Jimi was 15.
"The Bicycle Thief" (1948) is the Vittorio De Sica classic about a poor father and his son searching for a stolen bicycle, without which the father will lose his job.
We first meet the Ericksons in 1973, at the wedding of the family's eldest child, Anita, a small-town beauty for whom marriage and motherhood ultimately become traps more than prizes; her husband is not just a drinker and a poor father but, horribile dictu, a banker who forecloses on local farms even when those farms are owned by Erickson friends or relations.
After her father has retreated eagerly into his study to read letters about the baths, Petra says with a sigh, "Poor father, before long he's going to be overworked again". The matter-of-fact observation suggests a stormy psychological history.
That is not to say that all poor fathers will be reached.
In the letter, Schiff asked the writer's relatively poor father for a contribution to an invalid hospital and as an afterthought wished his wife and baby well.
The idea of throwing my poor father in a garbage can?" This unsentimental request was also, in a way, a metaphysical brainteaser: Savage was being asked to choose between honoring his father's wishes and honoring his father's body, between obeying him and celebrating him.
But I'd known from 17 that I was going to be an artist and... oof, my poor father.
