Australia is the best country in the world. I know that Alison and I are biased, but we say that every time we come home from an overseas trip, and it gets truer every time. We had an exciting journey as we met with family and fatherhood leaders in the USA, Europe and Asia. I have visited nineteen countries as an adult, and eight more as a child. Nothing has given ...

Don’t go lookin’ through that old camphor box, woman You know those old things only make you cry When you dream upon that little bunny rug It makes me think that life has passed you by There are days when you wish the world would stop, woman But then you know some wounds would never heal But when I browse the early pages of the children It’s then I know exactly ...

It’s always an interesting thing, gauging how much people engage with an issue or an idea. Sometimes you’d think that one thing would be wildly popular and it flops, other times you think it’s an absolute stinker, yet it grabs people’s attention and becomes a runaway success. This is especially true on the internet, a place where pictures of cats seem to rate higher than stories about real life heroes much ...

It’s interesting the things that come to mind when you’re busy with life. Recently I was looking after my four children at home (the eldest is almost seven, the youngest is not yet two) and I had to break up an argument. It was your typical “he said, she said, he did, she did” sort of affair, and ended up with son number two apologising to his sister with all the ...

It’s here! International Men’s Day is the 19th of November this year, and it’s a day when men across the world are encouraged to speak up about issues that affect men. There’s no shortage of topics to discuss; from lower life expectancy and a higher suicide rate than women, to unfair treatment in separation and divorce proceedings in court. But the even bigger questions are… What is a man? How do ...

Someone asked me what I personally thought the highlight was for the World Congress of Families IX (WCF9), Salt Lake City, Utah. My answer is simple. Meeting people who are passionate for building the best future for our children. Our children do best when raised by a married mother and father. Thousands of studies show this to be the case. To quote Rebecca O’Neill from Civitas. “The weight of evidence indicates ...

Guest blog by Kevin Bailey We all want to be a great example to our children. No new father ever sets out to deliberately lead their child astray but sometimes our weaknesses get in the way of our aspirations. If we are to be any use to our children we have to learn to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and begin again with a renewed purpose to be the ...

William Shakespeare, speaking about marital love between a man and a woman, said “Love is a many splendored thing.” He is regarded as the best poet and playwright of all recorded history. William Shakespeare lived in the 1500s but scientists are just finding out today that he knew what he was talking about.   The key to staying in love with your wife is embracing the complexity that the challenge of ...

I can fondly remember the fun times I had with my Dad when I was a boy. My brother and I would wrestle Dad on the lounge room floor. The punishment, if either of us got caught, was being in the hands of the proverbial Tickle Monster. Tickling was horrific but joyful torture at the hands of Daddy – the Tickle Monster, but little did we know at the time, that ...

The mission of Dads4Kids is to improve the well-being of children by increasing the proportion of children growing up with involved, responsible, committed and loving fathers. You might well ask the question, “How do we do this?” This is a question the team at Dads4Kids asks themselves every day. Simply put, we have to inspire more love in the fathers we connect with. Again you ask, “How do you inspire fathers ...

We all want to be happy but how many want to pay the price for true happiness. In an article called “Ten Keys to Happier Living” on the Actions for Happiness website it says, Helping others is not only good for them and a good thing to do, it also makes us happier and healthier too. Giving also connects us to others, creating stronger communities and helping to build a happier ...

If you have been reading this newsletter for any length of time you would have realised by now that I am a self-confessed marriage junkie. In other words I am very interested in the latest research on marriage and family. Not only do I like the latest research, but I love viral videos on marriage and family just as much. This week I want to give you a bit of both ...

Next Saturday, 30th May 2015, we celebrate Australia’s 12th National Day of Thanksgiving. www.thanksgiving.org.au The National Day of Thanksgiving is a day we can use to say ‘thank you’ to those around us. I am ‘thankful’ to say that I have been privileged to be part of this national celebration from its earliest beginnings although I resigned from the Board last year to make way for new blood. I believe in ...

Being a father carries with it some pretty serious responsibilities. That is why it is so important to learn to laugh, and that’s why we at Dads4Kids publish weekly doses of humour for busy dads. In 1979 Norman Cousins wrote, ‘Anatomy of an Illness (As Perceived by the Patient)’. Cousins had Ankylosing Spondylitis, a rheumatoid-like disorder. Considering the hospital noisy and impersonal, Cousins checked into a hotel room where he read ...

It’s been an inspiring week for me in more ways than one. I was one of more than 2 million people who attended a Dawn Service on Anzac Day. All over Australia records were broken. The Canberra War Memorial Dawn Service had 120,000 people attend, three times the number of last year. That means that almost one third of the total population of the city of Canberra (385,000) got out of ...

This coming Saturday marks the Anzac Centenary, which in more ways than one is ‘A Day to Remember’. The Centenary marks one hundred years of remembering our fathers who went off to war. Many did not return and many who did spent a life time recovering from the memory of the horrors of war. Anzac Day is bittersweet for me, just as it is for a lot of Australians. War brings ...

I sometimes look at what is happening in the world and I get pretty depressed. Sometimes I question even the value of our work at Dads4Kids. It seems our world is hell-bent on total annihilation. The attacks on fatherhood and motherhood are growing at an alarming rate and no one blinks an eyelid. Anyone who declares that children need a mother and a father, like me, are obviously hate-mongers and bigots. ...

The joke that our photo and humour editor, Ron Hellyer, posted in the laughter section the other week sure put a smile on my face. I am equally sure that the vast majority of men who read our newsletter each week would also be able to smile and say, “I know that man”. No names will ever be mentioned of course, least of all yours or mine. To refresh your memory, ...

Adam Sandler is a very funny man, but can be a bit rough around the edges for my liking. Alas, so is much of modern comedy. The movie ‘Click’ is Sandler to a tee. Happy Gilmore move over. Acerbic, sharp, funny and pushing the boundaries of humour (often in the wrong direction) this movie is something more than a comedy. ‘Click’ packs a message with a steel punch. Put family first ...

In a matter of days we celebrate Valentine’s Day by sending a card to the love of our life, buying flowers, chocolates or a host of other things to ‘prove’ our love for our one true love. Some people hate the rampant commercialism whilst others among us go along for the ride. I myself think that any custom that provokes us to keep the flame of love alive has got to ...