Only 9 more sleeps to International Men’s Day on Tuesday 19 November 2019. International Men’s Day is now celebrated in more than 80 countries worldwide. International Men’s Day is going from strength to strength. The theme for IMD 2019 is “Making a Difference for Men and Boys.” The mission of International Men’s Day this year is to help individuals, families, churches, communities, small businesses and corporations, including NGOs and Government organisations, ...

It is always a great thing when respected leaders take a stand for the male of the species, especially for our young boys. Sadly, the vendetta against men and boys seems to be gathering momentum. ‘Toxic masculinity’ seems to be the buzzword of the moment. In 2000, Christina Hoff Sommers published The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men. In the book, Sommers challenged what she called ...

My wife got me a book for Father’s Day called “Dear Dad”. It is a collection of letters to fathers, edited by Samuel Johnson OAM. The description on the back cover says, “A heartfelt, honest and very human book of letters that will make you smile and make you cry. It is the perfect gift for the Dad in your life. A reminder to say how you feel before it’s too ...

There is a lot of talk these days about creating safe spaces. Mostly for minority groups who feel victimised. A lot of this discussion is dribble, but at times there is a case for such a cause. Some minority groups do need a place where they can feel safe and be able to express their emotions and feelings, and be affirmed in the process. Interestingly the largest minority group currently on ...

Fathers and mothers each bring different qualities to parenting. Fathers can’t mother, and mothers can’t father. That is why both parents are so important to a healthy upbringing. Being a parent is all about working towards redundancy. In other words, there will come a time when your children will be able to stand on their own two feet. Eagles do it with their chicks that don’t want to leave the nest. ...

Albert Einstein said, “Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed.” Einstein acknowledged his failures as a husband and as a father in moments of candour in his private letters. To his credit, this is more than most men will admit to. Thoreau was right to say, “most men lead lives of quiet desperation”. I ...

‘Fathers Who Dare Win’ is a confronting but captivating title for a great book on how to be a great dad. Ian Grant, the author, was for many years New Zealand’s number one parenting coach. Ian and his wife founded the Parenting Place in 1993. That organisation is now the largest positive parenting charity in New Zealand. The following extract from Fathers Who Dare Win which is about becoming a hero ...

In our day we face shortages of all types: water shortages, skill shortages, food shortages, housing shortages and now the approaching threat of power shortages. None of these shortages is as dire as the shortage of manhood. Feminist author Betty McLellan published a book called, ‘Help I’m Living with a Man Boy’. Translated into 15 different languages it became an instant best seller. We can complain all we like about our ...

Some time ago Jeff Stacey, from my men’s group, gave me a copy of Wayne Bennett’s autobiography, Man in the Mirror. I was overjoyed. I have long been an admirer of Wayne Bennett, widely regarded as Australia’s greatest Rugby League Coach of all time. The Bronco’s football team which he coached for 21 years straight won six premierships. Wayne Bennett then coached the St George-Illawarra Dragons to their first victory in ...

Counting Crows had a hit in 2002 with Joni Mitchell’s famous song Big Yellow Taxi. Good songs never get old. The line that stands out in the song for me is “all and all it seems to go, but you don’t know what you got till it’s gone”. Such was the case of a good friend of mine, Mick Robbins. We had only met a half a dozen times, but he ...

Eric Clapton sang, “If I could change the world.” Many men dream about changing the world, but very few actually attempt it. Some succeed in bringing change, but is that change healthy, or does it create more problems than it solves? As a student radical, growing up in the late sixties, I believed it was possible to change the world. Of course, when you are young, and want to change the world, ...

I have a dream to change the world. Before I tell you what I believe the secret to changing the world is, let me share with you a few other perspectives. The radical feminists have developed a very simple solution to changing the world. They watched which gender was responsible for most of the violence, theft, rape, war and crime in the world. After identifying that the greatest proportion of evil ...

Jordan Peterson has been called the “the stupid man’s smart person”, and, one of my favorites, “a Messiah-cum-surrogate-dad for gormless dimwits”. Tiago Faleiro believes “He is the worst intellectual of our time”. He is, according to the New York Times, “a patriarchal pseudointellectual, riding his devilish dark horse into stardom and corrupting everybody in his path, at best an idiot fraud and at worst, the most dangerous thinker in the West.” ...

Some time ago a friend invited me to meet the Founder & President of ‘Champions of Honour’, a significant men’s network from the USA. I quickly rearranged my schedule and headed over to Gloria Jean’s Coffee Shop to catch up with Chuck Brewster (Chuck being a shortened term for Charles in American terminology). I must confess that I have a tendency to scepticism for many things that come from America.  My ...

Gillette has jumped on the #metoo bandwagon, and in the process has derogated masculinity. I have a lot of sympathy for the #metoo movement, because one in four women and one in six men have been sexually assaulted. From my counselling experience, those figures are understated.  It happens a lot more than people realise. It almost happened to me. I was a young naive man in my late teens with a ...

Recently a friend of mine told me he was going in for surgery into the hospital. I offered to pray for him. He looked at me with eager and hopeful eyes which told me about the joy of my offer to him and the fear of the challenge ahead. The prospect of going under the knife myself, sent a shiver down my back. It is downright scary. You are totally in ...

Last weekend I attended a three day ‘Wild at Heart’ Bootcamp with John Eldridge and his team at Stanwell Tops, NSW. I was joined by over 400 other men from all over Australia and all over the world. Men came from USA, England, Canada, Europe and New Zealand. In the USA, one can only get into a Wild at Heart Bootcamp by random ballot, such is the demand. I have been ...

The title of this week’s blog, “Secrets of the Superdads”, is taken from the ABC Science Show screened several years ago. It is even more relevant today than the day it was made.  You know that the fatherhood revolution is well underway when the ABC screens a great feature on fatherhood like this one. Very uncharacteristic but most welcome! The good news is that you can see most of it on ...

“The revolution will not be televised but you will see it on YouTube”. This adaptation of Gil Scott-Heron’s famous saying from the seventies might be the best way of explaining the recent November 19 celebration of International Men’s Day around the world. The colloquialism, “You can’t keep a good man down”, is coming to life as the grass roots celebration of good men comes to life in the hearts and minds ...

The unknown soldier was buried in the ‘Hall of Memory’, at the Australian War Memorial on 11 November 1993. Twenty-five years and eight days since that solemn occasion we celebrate the life and death of the unknown father on International Men’s Day 19 November 2018. How did this happen? Just last week I received an unexpected video message on my phone from my friend, Rob Day. Video Message from Rob Day ...