This week’s newsletter is called ‘Hard to be Humble’. I had suggested ‘Father Eats Humble Pie’ or ‘Bossy Boots Bites the Dust’ but I was over-ruled so I accepted the sanitized ‘Hard to be Humble’. Let me explain: Many years ago one of our former board members, Phil Latz had the bright idea of organising a fundraising 40km bike ride called ‘Ride Around the Lake’.  This was a ride around Lake ...

Let me share with you Ten Tips for Dads. The tips are not all my own ideas but that just shows that there is truth to the statement, “There is nothing new under the sun.” I can assure you however that I have practiced all these ideas with varying degrees of success. If you can put all these ideas into practice you will be a lot better father than I, which ...

Several years ago, Dads4Kids organized a competition in which we asked the children of Australia for their input and ideas on how best to help them. Five hundred and seventy-five entries from young and old were received. Lyle Sims, one of the top three winners of the Dads4Kids Competition observed wisely, “Our young people are the future of our nation. As they go, so goes the nation. Our future is in ...

Editors Note from Warwick Marsh: This heartfelt and moving story should encourage us all as men to invest in our marriages for the sake of our children, ourselves, our wife and our families future. I reprint it for your inspiration. My Parents Had a Divorce by A. E. a student at the University of California Irvine online newspaper Volume 42, Issue 15 My parents got divorced shortly after Sept 11. It ...

The story of Dick Hoyt’s commitment to his son Rick is one of the most amazing stories I have ever seen or heard. It is almost beyond comprehension. It is the story of a father’s love and his absolute commitment to his son which is carried out in the most extraordinary way. Rick was born in 1962 with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, and as a result has cerebral ...

The George Lyndon Story: This saga was written up by my good friend John Flanagan who is a friend of the friendless and has been helping both men and women all his life dealing with the dreaded Child Support Agency. It is story of unimaginable legal bias and corrupt practice by both the Courts  the so called Child Support Agency George Lyndon was born on 19 November 1935 in Greece. Ms ...

I am one Australian who is going to encourage Australian Dads to hold a family celebration in observance of Australia Day. We have good reason to do so. Australia makes the top ten countries listed in the US News Accolades and comes second in the UN Quality of Life Index. Having said all that, I would argue, having visited 29 of the nations of the world, that Australia is one of ...

TIME is our greatest asset. Theophrastus said, “Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend”. How we spend it is important. This is especially true as a father. Children demand and need our time. Our spouse requires our time, and more generally our relationships require our time. We must avoid wasting precious time. That is why we must be ultra-careful in how we use our time. From the point ...

Every now and then a moment comes along that takes your breath away. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If that is the case a good video or film can be worth a million. That is why you must watch the below video and I mean must! It truly is amazing. Seventeen million people cannot be wrong. If you don’t believe me just read some of the almost ...

  I don’t know about your Christmas, but our family had a very enjoyable family gathering. Our whole family gets together immediately before Christmas to allow our family members to meet with their own or extended family on Christmas Day. We started this custom some years ago and it works for us. The good news is that we get to open some of our presents early, something that the children are ...

The cinema was packed, but we just had to see ‘The Last Jedi’ for ourselves. We were so fixated we took the last two seats in the front row.  The anticipation was building as the text scrolled across the star filled universe. In a galaxy far, far away, a story was about to unfold that has captured the hearts and wallets of people of the known world. Fortune Magazine said, “Star ...

On my Thursday date night with my wife last week. (Yes, we still have Date Nights and you can too.) I saw a sight that warmed my heart. A father was walking along the street with his young teenage son, hugging his head and shoulders. They were both laughing and hugging each other. Perhaps they were sharing a joke, or they were simply stirring each other, or doing some street wrestling. ...

I have watched the continuing current expose of Hollywood’s culture of sexual depravity with breathless be-wonderment. Its been a long time coming and long overdue!  Mike Powell has written and excellent article in the Spectator about the subject called ‘Hollywood Hypocrisy’. “Mike Pence, the current Vice President of the United States, has been mocked and ridiculed for following the revelation that he never eats alone with another woman, other than his ...

Recently I spent the day with my eldest son at the Embolden Conference. Travelling there and back, we talked a lot as fathers and sons do, and the subject got around to the challenge of raising daughters compared to sons. My son has 5 daughters 9yrs to 1yr and I have 4 sons and one daughter and the daughter born last. Make no mistake, the batting order does make the world ...

  The people of Australia have spoken. They don’t want to keep marriage as it is and has always been for thousands of years, through countless cultures, from time immemorial. They want to redefine marriage. How sad! The Postal Survey was mailed out to 16,006,180 Australians. Of these, 7,817,247 voted ‘Yes’. That is less than 50% (in fact it is 48.84%). So in spite of the fact that less than 50% ...

Erica Komisar has written a much-needed book titled, “Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters”. Her vital message has struck a raw nerve in our fatherless and now almost motherless society and she has come under fire from the liberal left in the USA where she resides. This unwarranted attack has not deterred her from speaking out on the vital need that babies and young children have ...

Every year the team at Dads4Kids takes a bunch of dads and their children on our annual Dads4Kids Fun Camp. This yearly adventure is also part of our local Good to Great Fathering Course. You don’t have to do a Dad’s Course to come on the Dads4Kids Fun Camp, but it does help. We started going to a wild and rugged part of Australia, called the Wollondilly River Station, in 2004. ...

My Dad was a great story teller. My brother and I grew up listening to his fiction and nonfiction stories. We especially loved hearing about the story of his many encounters with poisonous snakes. The snakes seemed to fare the worst and usually ended up lying dead on top of the nearest bull ant nest. The ants seemed quite excited by the arrival of ‘the snake on your plate while you ...

Dad4Kids has a totally positive focus to encourage, resource and inspire dads to be great dads. Fatherlessness is the single biggest curse of western civilisation. Dads4Kids strategy to reverse that curse is to promote excellence in fathering as the benchmark, or agreed norm, in our otherwise dysfunctional society. Fathers aspiring to excellence treat their children well. Fathers aspiring to excellence treat their wives well because they know that the greatest thing ...

The first words the caller said after I picked up the phone were, “I wanted to kill him!” “Kill who?” I stammered. “Kill my father,” he said emphatically. Before I tell you what happened next, let me tell you his answer when I asked the question as to why he felt like killing his father. Andrew (not his real name) was the son of a travelling showman. ‘Showies’ travel around the ...