NEWS

NEWS2026-04-30T15:29:27+10:00
  • Happily Ever After

    21 January, 2026

    We all know the phrase “happily ever after,” but real marriage often looks very different from the fairy tale. What if our expectations of marriage are shaping our experience more than we realise?

    Byron and Francine Pirola

  • Helping Men and Boys

    1 September, 2021

    The life story of Professor Gregory W. Slayton is a story that is hard to believe. It is the story of how rejection turned into acceptance and led to the creation of a legacy that still looks impossible. You will be inspired and encouraged, guaranteed. Do you know how to be a better dad today? Do you have the 10-tool toolkit needed to make it happen? You can begin to discover ...

    Guy Mullon and Chris Field

  • fear

    31 August, 2021

    It was a sunny Saturday morning; I was dining alfresco at a restaurant on a busy street, casually sipping my coffee, when I noticed a little girl wander past our table and down the street. Her mother was deep in conversation and didn’t notice. I didn’t want to cause alarm by yelling at her to watch her child from across the busy tables, so I walked toward the little girl. She ...

    Annette Spurr

  • listening

    30 August, 2021

    Do you find yourself finishing others’ sentences, pigeonholing people, speaking over them, or multitasking when others are speaking to you? If so, then perhaps it is listening reset time… Would you call yourself a good listener?  Most people would answer positively to that question — but when those who know you are asked that question, will their answer be as positive? From Zero To Listening Hero Real Talk 4 Real Men ...

    Guy Mullon and Chris Field

  • limits

    28 August, 2021

    Health-hindering lockdowns are by no means fun. The routine COVID-19 “stay home” decrees were agreeably necessary when little was known about the virus. 19 months on, government decrees are less about preserving health, and more about governments serving themselves. There’s little doubt that keeping people scared, helps an increasingly militant bureaucracy keep emergency powers firmly in their hands. It’s with this in mind that I’m reluctant to give out ideas for ...

    Rod Lampard

  • this bloke

    28 August, 2021

    I know this bloke: he is an old fella, but a single dad. He has been through the mill before; the ‘family court mill’, I mean. Anyway, he now has a 9-year-old little girl who is living with him. She is a beautiful, vibrant, loving, caring little girl. He has no court orders, hasn’t been to the courts, hasn’t applied, just has an agreement with his wife, and the child is ...

    Tony Miller

  • read

    27 August, 2021

    Dr. Seuss said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” This famous children’s book author was certainly across his subject. Here are 10 good reasons why you should read to your children. Hopefully you are inspired. 1. Dads Bring Something Special to the Reading Equation. Harvard-trained Dr Elisabeth Duursma said, “In most families, mothers are the ones ...

    Warwick Marsh

  • plumber

    26 August, 2021

    There was a time where I was anti-women getting into trades. I was an end-of-third year apprentice, had just finished my Diploma in Fashion Styling and I was about to complete my last block of TAFE for my plumbing apprenticeship. I was over plumbing. Over male tradies. Over male apprentices. I was over having to prove myself when I worked. I was over TAFE teachers who read from the Standards, rather ...

    Rebecca Senyard

  • race

    25 August, 2021

    A life around the family home can at times feel like a race to complete each day’s requirements. Recently, like many others, I find myself being forced to slow down in what is usually a busy lifestyle. Caught trying to understand the current ‘Covid’ life and reflecting on what was, before covid. Pre-covid, my children participated in school competitive sports. I am a person that likes to blend in with people ...

    Jenny Stephens

  • work-life balance

    25 August, 2021

    Oprah Winfrey said that you can’t have everything and do everything at the same time. Was she right? Today we unpack work-life balance and ask if it is still possible. And if it is, then how? When the term work-life balance is raised, it usually stirs some sort of emotion in you. There are a few who don’t desire ‘work-life balance’, but on the whole, most men I speak to have ...

    Guy Mullon

  • family meal - ready for Spring

    24 August, 2021

    Did you know that nearly half of Australians expect to gain up to two kilos during winter? Some surveys suggest 90 per cent of people eat more fast and snack foods and takeaways because they make them feel warmer and happier; 36 per cent of Australians worry about weight gain during winter; and 59 per cent know that weight gain will be caused by exercising less and eating more fast and ...

    Annette Spurr

  • care and responsibility

    23 August, 2021

    Can you be overly protective of your wife and kids? How do you walk the balance between care and responsibility? That is the topic of Real Talk 4 Real Men episode #27. Are you confident that you are preparing your young adults well for handling the responsibilities that come with adulthood? Have you prepared your wife to be able to live well without you, should you suddenly be taken off this ...

    Guy Mullon and Chris Field

  • creative children - art

    21 August, 2021

    Albert Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” Albert Einstein is 100% correct. And that is the exact challenge I felt when I was trying to create our new Dads4Kids TV Community Service Announcement. Although we have done it every year and have done it successfully since 2002, imagining new things is often hard. When you take that into account (we are now ...

    Warwick Marsh

  • 20 August, 2021

    Margin is a term entrenched in the financial world. Margin trading. Stock margin. Profit margin — the examples are vast. In situ, it means the sum total between a ‘product or service’s selling price and the cost of production’. In practice, margin is a buffer.   In other words, margin is whatever fills the gap between success and ruin. Margin is what’s left over after both variable and invariable costs have been ...

    Rod Lampard

  • Dear God

    20 August, 2021

    Dear God, help me to write when I am looking at an empty page. Dear God, help me to be a better person, a better father, a better friend, a better husband. Dear God, help me to become whom You want me to be. Dear God, help me to like Spongebob Squarepants reruns.   Dear God, help me not to get cranky when my daughter leaves a mess wherever she goes. ...

    Tony Miller

  • support local businesses

    19 August, 2021

    If there was ever a time to support local businesses, now would be it. And I have no doubt many of us have been doing what we can by ordering takeaway from our local restaurants or buying from online Australian stores. But the difficulty many face with supporting local is having the income to do so and for a lot of families, it’s a really tight request to ask. The impacts ...

    Rebecca Senyard

  • 13 life lessons

    18 August, 2021

    When a crisis hits you out of nowhere, what do you do next? When Guy faced nearly losing a child, he learned 13 lessons before the crisis was even over. Sometimes in life you have experiences that profoundly and permanently change you. Experiences either solidify your existing beliefs, assumptions and expectations, or they challenge and change what you thought you knew. Some are so small you don’t even notice them. Some ...

    Guy Mullon

  • day out with dad

    17 August, 2021

    One of my most favourite things of all time is when one or both of our boys have a day out with dad. Partly because it means I get a day out with myself that usually consists chocolate, girly movies and/or pampering, but also because I notice a distinct difference in my boys every time they return. As if they’ve grown up a little bit, and for the next few days, ...

    Annette Spurr

  • burnout unhappy

    16 August, 2021

    How close are you to burning out? Could you recognise the signs? What will the consequences be if you did burn out? In episode 44 of Real Talk 4 Real Men, Guy and Chris unpack how you can guard against burnout. As I sat on the last train of the night home from another exhausting and stressful day at the office, my brain continued to race as I reflected on the ...

    Guy Mullon and Chris Field

  • men in crisis

    15 August, 2021

    “Can you help me?” These were the words I first heard when I picked up the phone. “I can’t see my kids and I don’t know what to do. I feel like giving up and I am thinking about killing myself to shut off the pain.” The matter-of-fact way he said these words told me that this was no veiled threat, but a carefully considered option. Men don’t usually tell you ...

    Warwick Marsh

  • chips and gravy

    15 August, 2021

    It’s Friday night and I have just come home from the fish-and-chip shop up the road. I went up earlier with my 9-year-old daughter Angel. While we were waiting for our order — chips and gravy — she was telling me with much conviction that if you spit chewing gum onto the footpath, some people will come along and pick it up, and because it has your tooth-prints in the gum, ...

    Tony Miller

News

Dads 4 Kids News is for writers to share interesting insights, news, and stories, to encourage dads and their families.

Most Read

The opinions of the various writers are not necessarily the opinion of Dads4Kids. Please do your own research and come to your own conclusions. We welcome feedback and if you would like to submit an article for the Daily Dad, please contact the editor at info@dads4kids.org.au

1603, 2017

The Origins of Political Correctness

By |March 16th, 2017|

 Editors Note: I have re-posted this very good article by Bill Lund which was first released in 2000. It is worrying to think that such an insightful artilce was not more widely read. I am sure Bill Lund would be encouraged to know that we are keen to tell the ...

1603, 2017

Ten Tips for Dads

By |March 16th, 2017|

Let me share with you Ten Tips for Dads. The tips are not all my own ideas; this 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 ...

1003, 2017

Our Future – Our Children

By |March 10th, 2017|

Recently I revisited a competition that Dads4Kids held some time ago to get ideas about how to progress Dads4Kids. The thoughts and comments that came in showed profound insight and were deeply moving. Lyle Sims, one of the top three winners of the Dads4Kids Competition observed wisely, "Our young people ...

403, 2017

The Power of the 80/20 Principle

By |March 4th, 2017|

My wife was annoyed with me because I took too long in the bookshop. It wouldn't be the first time. Bookshops for me are like entering a time vortex. ‘Joshua's Long Day’, when the sun stood still, happens every time I enter a bookshop. The problem is that I am ...

1802, 2017
  • ban divorce

Ban Divorce

By |February 18th, 2017|

'What Children Want Most is a Ban on Divorce, Says Poll' was a headline in a major UK paper several years ago. The poll question was: "What rules would you make if you ruled the world as King or Queen?" #BanDivorce was the number one request. Nationwide research of children ...

1002, 2017

Valentines Day and the Key to a Woman’s Heart

By |February 10th, 2017|

I have heard so many men complain to me, “My wife is very high maintenance”. In most cases this statement shows a distinct lack of understanding of the fairer sex. The truth of the matter, from a man’s point of view, is all women are high maintenance. A man’s needs ...

302, 2017

Can”t Buy Love

By |February 3rd, 2017|

When you Google 'Can't Buy Me Love', the famous song by Paul McCartney, first performed by the Beatles, way back in the sixties, 35 million references come up.  That just shows how influential the Beatles still are today, some 5 decades down the track. I'll buy you a diamond ring ...

2701, 2017

Seven Secrets of Success

By |January 27th, 2017|

We were interrupted last week by learning about the joy of the journey for both fathers and grandfathers. We learnt the joy of birthdays, birth moments, and ‘having fun with your family’. Surely this was a good interruption, but I would now like to share my Seven Secrets for Success. ...

2701, 2017

The Joy of The Journey

By |January 27th, 2017|

Recently we attended the birthday of our nine year old twin granddaughters. Family members gathered from east and west. The party atmosphere, with the presence of other young children, was very much a controlled but happy riot. The new trampoline in the back yard added to the festivities.  Interestingly my ...

2701, 2017

Foundation for Success

By |January 27th, 2017|

It seems that we’ve arrived suddenly in 2017! You might well ask where 2016 went? – a very good question. Some probably don’t want to think about 2016 – it’s simply too painful. For others, the treadmill was going so fast you felt as if your feet got burned trying ...

401, 2017

Taking a Break

By |January 4th, 2017|

I hate to admit it, but I am probably what Dr John Tickell calls a ‘Type A personality’. One sign of Type A behaviour is the fact that this newsletter has gone out to men all over Australia every week, without fail, for 15 years(thank you Ron). The upside of ...

3112, 2016

Love DNA

By |December 31st, 2016|

We have just celebrated the greatest event in human history, the birth of Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ split time in two in more ways than one.  BC and AD and have been a measure of history for almost two thousand years.  We also have the old and new Testaments, not ...

2412, 2016

Best Day of the Year

By |December 24th, 2016|

Everyone has their best day of the year. For me it is Christmas which is the day this newsletter comes out - Sunday 25th December 2016. The reason that this is the best day for me is simple. Christmas Day is a time when family collides with Christ in the ...

1812, 2016
  • tribute

A Tribute to You Dad

By |December 18th, 2016|

Dear Dads4Kids Fatherhood Foundation, My father died last Sunday 4/3/07 of prostate cancer aged 69. I helped nurse him in last 5 days of his life, staying overnight in hospital with him one night. The pain and agony he suffered must have been excruciating. I am writing this article for ...

1712, 2016
  • Christmas tree

Five Keys to a Successful Christmas

By |December 17th, 2016|

Charles Dickens' words could well apply to Christmas for many people here in Australia.  “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…  it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness.” From my point of view Christmas is one of the best times ...

1012, 2016

Men and Women are Incredibly and Wonderfully Different.

By |December 10th, 2016|

When we were bringing up our boys in the eighties it was in vogue to suggest that boys and girls are trained to be the sex they represent by people’s expectations and gender manipulations. Almost anyone my age believed it. I carefully watched my own children’s behaviours and realised that ...

1012, 2016

Dads Humble Pie

By |December 10th, 2016|

My wife said in a loud voice, “Someone’s got to take Melodie to school, she’s missed the bus”.  I immediately volunteered for a number of reasons.  Firstly, to help my wife who was working to a tight deadline in the office.  Secondly, because I needed to do something en-route to ...

2511, 2016

The Destruction of Manhood

By |November 25th, 2016|

Many years ago I received a message on the Dads4Kids answering service from a man in the middle of a marriage breakdown. It was a deep cry for help. His voice was quiet and determined and he alluded to the fact that he wanted to take his own life. I ...

1211, 2016

The Child’s Story

By |November 12th, 2016|

We celebrate International Men’s Day on Saturday 19 November 2016, but the next day, on 20 November 2016, we celebrate World Children’s Day. If you ask me which day is the greater I would say the second one because as Roland Leonhardt said, “Children bring us a piece of heaven ...

511, 2016

Stop Male Suicide – International Men’s Day

By |November 5th, 2016|

Only thirteen more sleeps to one of the most exciting days of the year for us egocentric men besides Father’s Day. Don’t worry, I am only kidding about International Men’s Day being egocentric. After all, I was the guy who helped write the song, “It’s hard to be humble when ...

2910, 2016

Visit From the Marriage Auditor

By |October 29th, 2016|

VISIT FROM THE MARRIAGE AUDITOR Imagine you received a phone call that went something like this:  "Mr & Mrs Herald, we need to make an appointment with you to do a 'Marriage Audit'.  Can we make it 8.00pm tonight?  Thank you.  See you at 8.00pm." Marriage Audit?  I've heard of ...

2910, 2016

Marriage Creates Love

By |October 29th, 2016|

A great poet once said, “Love is a many-splendored thing”. Whilst many of us would agree with Shakespeare, it seems that many would also agree with Eric Clapton when he sings, “Why does love got to be so sad?” Or maybe you feel more like the Eddie Vedder from Pearl ...

2210, 2016

The Mystery of the Basket

By |October 22nd, 2016|

What is it about us men? But maybe I am just talking to myself here. So sorry for bringing you into it. I have always had this attitude. It’s called ‘separation of duties’. Sort of like saying to my wife, “You do your job and I will do mine”. My ...

1810, 2016

Marriage Matters

By |October 18th, 2016|

Many years ago I made a speech with my wife at a function in Parliament House, Canberra on the importance of mothers and fathers. Our goal was to encourage both the Liberal and Labor parties to value equally mothers and fathers after divorce, and not to follow the politically correct ...

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