Avoid “good cop, bad cop” parenting as much as possible. In fact, ditch it altogether. A system that elevates mums over dads, or dads over mums, doesn’t work. Good cop, bad cop parenting’s long-term costs negate any short-term benefits. The system is a recipe for favouritism, resentment and parental neglect. Potentially even divorce. Good cop, bad cop is a poor metaphor for parenting. It’s even worse as an instruction manual for ...

This Father’s Day will be different again. Border closures and social distancing rules have made it harder to socialise locally. These home-delivered Father’s Day gifts will help us love our dads from afar and make them feel appreciated, even if we can’t be there in person. Supporting local shops and Australian-made products is going to benefit our local economy. If you’re at a loss on what to send your dad via ...

Do you struggle with behaviours that you can’t change, and can’t understand where they come from? Or perhaps you still harbour guilt and shame, or blame yourself for not having a father in your life? The impacts of being fatherless at some key point in our lives can have devastating consequences that we might not even be aware of. Listen to Jack Thurston’s story and his proven solutions to the impacts ...

Listen to author Annette Spurr’s interview with Focus on the Family Australia here. ‘While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.’ ~ Angela Schwindt Nothing can truly prepare you for parenthood. The tears and tantrums, toilet training, sleepless nights, the worry that you’re not doing it right, or the indescribable love that changes everything. As soon as I found out ...

When you are faced with the failure of much of what you believed about life and yourself, where do you turn? Can you reset your life? How do you begin? What do you do when the way you were committed to living has not worked out, and you come to a point of realising it never will? When your life has suddenly changed — perhaps a midlife crisis, career change, health ...

Rod Lampard, father of five, says in a recent article in the Daily Dad, “Technology is a tool, not a toy. It’s a horrible baby-sitter. A terrible master. Tech is no substitute for hands-on, old-school dad and mum counsel, comfort and conviction.” That sums up my feelings exactly. For many years of my younger life, we did not have a TV in the house. Looking back, it was a good thing. ...

Video games can be great bond-builders. With the demise of couch co-op, options for split-screen adventures are few and far between. Computer games are not the community-building tool they once were. Companies like DICE, EA and even Mojang followed the Silicon Valley maximum profit trend by limiting customisable consumer options. Buy an Apple product, for example, and they lock you into paying for their expensive branded accessories. Console-makers, game developers and ...

Sometimes I find myself wondering what it would be like if he were here now. I’d like to make a place for him at our table for Christmas lunch, like I do for Mum and other family and friends. I’d like to serve him and make up the spare room in our home. I’d like him to see what I’ve become. I was a skinny, pimply, constantly awkward teenager when he ...

Are you living in the now, or in the glory days of your memory? With life moving ever faster, the cost is high if we fail to keep up. This is a challenging podcast (#47 Real Talk for Real Men). There was a time when you could build your life around a single career, even a single employer. Work hard and you had a job for life and a secure retirement.  ...

Create a visual journal of crafts made with your kids at home in isolation. The corkboard craft display will be a tangible visual reminder of the fun you got up to with your kids. We’ve had our first week and a bit in isolation… Some have been doing home-school. It’s been a crazy juggle for parents as they manage working from home, while ensuring kids are… occupied and learning. It’s not ...

What are the life skills that you need through life’s journey? Guy & Chris reflect on this in episode #58. As you are journeying through life, are you continuing to build the life skills that underpin your growing maturity and success through life, or will you revel in being both ignorant and arrogant? Life Skills for Life’s Journey In episode 58 of Real Talk for Real Men, Chris and Guy encourage ...

Tony Robbins said, “It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” We all make a life by the decisions we make. A great man I once knew said to me, “Life is a decision.” So how do you make the right decisions in life, both for yourself and for your family? The simple reality is that you must have a basis for your decisions. Think of it ...

Not all TV dads are the same. Take examples like Tim Allen’s sharp-witted Mike Baxter, and contrast him with Matt Groening’s, feckless Homer Simpson. Forget for a moment that we’re talking about cartoon vs. human. In any greatest-dad-of-all-time celebrity boxing match, we know Baxter would win. The outdoor man vs. the “Duff” guzzling, obese, inattentive, drooling, lounge lizard. A father with strength, humility, and a no-nonsense embrace of free speech, up ...

Five days after burying his dad, Chris shares the impact an ordinary bloke can have living with purpose. Are the men who live great lives, who have great impact, supermen, larger than life, different to you and me? Or are they just ordinary people, just like you and me who have discovered something … … who somewhere along the line made small, right choices again and again, and together across time ...

So, my eldest started school last week and I was cool with that. Yes, I did get a little misty-eyed at drop-off time (Tyson, as predicted, was totally fine and ran off into the proverbial distance with nary a look over his shoulder). I thought I’d be anxious about leaving my baby, about him making friends, about liking his teacher… but do you know the thing that freaked me out the ...

If there was a crash course in what every father needs to know, that could be crushed into just 30 minutes, what would it look like? Probably pretty close to what former Queensland Father of the Year Darren Lewis shares here. I read on a sticker inside a tour bus, in all places while doing a Hollywood tour in Los Angeles, The most important things in life are not things. – LA ...

“As iron sharpens iron so does the face of a man’s friend,” is a saying from the book of Proverbs. It really sums up the mysterious masculine healing power that is released when men gather together for a noble purpose. I have experienced this mysterious force in men’s gatherings at so many different levels and in so many different ways, for the last 40 years. I just love it when men ...

Dad-life involves both being and doing. In a word, fatherhood is a vocation. The Latin equivalent is vocare — “to call.” Dad-life is therefore a “calling.” It’s much more than just another job. For sure, fatherhood is full-time work. We’re required to be on the scene until the good Lord retires us. This will mean being waste-deep in the complexity of relationships. Wading through life’s trenches carrying responsibility and commitment, regardless ...

Today, Chris and Guy answer the question: what is really involved in being a father in a child’s world? Episode #31 of Real Talk 4 Real Men. When you became a daddy, did you think that being a father was something just so natural, you didn’t really need to think very much about it? That was Chris’ experience more than four decades ago, but he had to learn the hard way ...

Around half of all toddlers are considered fussy eaters, screwing up their nose at salad and pitching butternut pumpkin from their high chairs. Establishing healthy eating patterns in children is important and can have a big impact on their everyday health, growth and cognitive development. So, how do we avoid the daily food fight? Cancer Council Queensland has five tips to get parents started. One, be a good role model: Children ...