Do children need a father figure? January Jones doesn’t think so

January Jones won’t be joining Tinder any time soon. The Mad Men star has been single since giving birth to her son Xander, now five. And she’s totally fine with that, thank you very much.

Speaking in the February issue of Red magazine, the actress has opened up about being a single mum by choice, and why she doesn’t feel her little boy needs a father figure in his life. Instead, the 39-year-old has made a point of surrounding her son with strong women such as her good friends Rose Byrne and Amy Adams.

The actor, who has never disclosed the identity of Xander’s father, said her and her son haven’t missed him in their lives.

“Xander has a lot of bro time with the neighbour dads and my dad, who is super young,” she told the magazine.

“It’s good to have strong women around a man to teach him to respect women.

“He doesn’t have a male person saying ‘don’t cry’ or ‘you throw like a girl.’ All those s**tty things that dads accidentally do.”

The actress went on to reveal that she loves living alone with her little boy.

“It’s just me and the nanny,” she said. “No one lives in the house with us… I just don’t feel I need a partner.”

But that doesn’t mean she’s ruling out a boyfriend in the future.

“Do I want one? Maybe,” she said. “But I don’t feel unhappy or lonely. It would have to be someone so amazing that I would want to make room. Someone who would contribute to my happiness and not take away from it.”

It isn’t the first time January Jones has opened up about single motherhood. In 2013 she was asked about her decision to bring her son up alone. “I don’t have room for anything else, so I don’t know how I would have done it with a partner,” she told Net-A-Porter’s The Edit.

“I knew I would be raising my son alone. It was something I went in to knowingly, I was prepared mentally – and I was excited about it.”

But the actress revealed to Red that single motherhood isn’t always easy. “I don’t want to be bad cop,” she said, “But to have his respect, I have to be both. I’m an emotionally immature person – I’m an actor for God’s sake. I see myself behaving like a child all the time,” she admits.

Offering an example, she went on to explain: “This morning, I made Xander eggs, toast, a smoothie. He spat out his blueberries, threw the eggs into the sink, was playing with his toast, and I just lost my shit. And I took the plate and threw it in the garbage, in tears. Someone needs to be the mature one here, but I had a full tantrum.”

Whether you’re parenting on your own or have the support of a partner, all parents can likely relate to losing it sometimes, but not everyone admits to it. So thanks to January Jones for fessing up that that kind of thing happens all the time, no matter what kind of family you have.

Do children need a father figure in their life? Let us know what you think @YahooStyleUK

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