This is a pretty interesting question. I don't know if I've ever given it much thought.
My mom had me at 20. My dad was five years older than her. She was the youngest child, raised by my single grandmother in the city projects and never knew her dad; my dad was raised by my grandparents, who were married, heavy into the church, living in a suburb. My granddaddy had a government job and moved him, his siblings and wife out of the projects to this nicer side of town. They originally were from a rural town.
Their backgrounds were very different.
My mother always talked about how great of a father my dad was to us and how well he actually took care of her. He was the dad who actually wanted to be with the kids when she went out, who wanted to do family vacations in the summer, who wanted to provide for her to stay home (though she didn't want that part).
Crack got my daddy in the 80s like it got others, and he was fighting that demon until he passed just last spring. They divorced years ago, and he never seemed to find his footing again. When my grandmother died, he became homeless. My dad lived on the street for nearly the last 10 years of his life. I would meet people who knew him out there who spoke of how good of a person he was. He was a history/social studies buff and loved showing off what he knew. He was helping the youngester of someone who looked out for him learn how to read....while he had no pot to pass in himself.
My mother used to tell us kids, even after she left him, that our father had always been a good man who had just made some poor choices in life. Because she kept telling us that, we thought no less of him when we saw him on the street, never said to my dad or thought to myself that he wasn't shyt. I always saw a good man who had made some tragic choices...so I wasn't indifferent to seeing what he was experiencing; it hurt a lot. That's why did everything I could to help him finally get off the streets. He'd been living in his own place and off the streets for about a year and a half before he died. Now he is on my living room mantle.
I married a man who reminds me very much of my dad and all the good things about him. My husband is also the middle child of 3, the one with a fun-loving nature who can get along with anyone, who genuinely wanted and likes being around his children and who also looks after me.
I don't know if my mama could've choice better, but I genuinely don't regret the father I did have.