My husband grew up with a largely absent and sometimes abusive dad that he lived with. That was a lot harder than growing up with a loving dad too. The question isn't whether or not it's best to have two loving parents - clearly it is, and I spoke to that more than once. The question is, if you don't have that for some reason, is it an automatic death sentence to happiness and success in life. The narrative says yes, but the real world evidence as well as the research says no.