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 ...

This time next week, we could have a new government. The thought sends a shiver down my spine for two reasons. The Labor Party, who according to the polls will form government in a week’s time, are obsessively devoted to the introduction of Gender-Fluidity in our schools. See details of Labor’s policy here. The teaching of this harmful ideology will damage our children massively. I believe this is nothing more than ...

Mother’s Day will be celebrated on Sunday 12 May and we encourage you to make it a big celebration. Motherhood and mothers need to be valued and appreciated a lot more than they do. You know the line by now, “The greatest thing a father can do for his children is to love his children’s mother.” Why is it that so many men just don’t get that? A key part of ...

Many years ago, I went to the largest single day men’s conference in Australia, the Hillsong Men’s Conference.    One of the speakers, Dr A.R. Bernard, shared the title of his message, “What do Women Want“. A holy hush descend on the 5,000 men gathered in the auditorium as they all thought “Wow! I am going to find out today the question that many of my forbears desperately wanted to know but ...

Henry Youngman, a comedian who was known as ‘King of the One Liners’ once said, “I was an atheist for a while, but I gave it up, no holy-days.” Such a one liner about holy-days sums up the subject of this week’s newsletter – Easter Family Holidays. Most of us celebrate Easter holidays but where did they come from and why do we celebrate them? Most countries in the world celebrate ...

Richard Branson said, “If happiness is the goal – and it should be, then adventures should be top priority.” It is the priority of adventure that makes being out in the bush with a bunch of dads and their kids really exhilarating. Wollondilly River Station, the place for our annual Dads4kids Bush Camp, is set in a deep valley not too far from the famous Wombeyan Caves in the Southern Highlands ...

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, ...

“A merry heart does good like a medicine,” is a quote from the Book of Proverbs that is backed up by all the modern sciences. Raising a family can be exasperating beyond belief. That is why the team behind Dads4Kids believe you must never lose your sense of humour. I have often said that Dads must be the laugh leaders in my weekly Dads4Kids newsletters. To drive that point home, let ...

The phrase ‘I am Spartacus!’ was taken from the 1960 film Spartacus by Stanley Kubrick. Historically, Spartacus was a slave who trained as a gladiator under oppressive Roman rule, and who led a slave rebellion in 73 BC. He amassed a large army of fellow slaves and led his men to defeat the Roman legion on several occasions. Eventually, the Roman Senate sent Marcus Crassus to put down this rebellion with ...

“What’s Happening to Our Boys?” is the title of a book by well-known author Maggie Hamilton and released by Penguin Books. We have covered this book before, but this content is still incredibly relevant. All the more relevant as we approach International Boys’ Day on 16 May 2019. Put it in your diary now! Gary Bryant, from the Western Australian Men’s Advisory Network, says of ‘What’s Happening to Our Boys?’: As ...

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 ...

In a matter of days we celebrate Valentine’s Day by sending a card to the love of our life, buying flowers, chocolates, ‘candy’ 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 ...

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 ...

Mothers are important! Let’s face the facts. You cannot have a father without a mother. Dads4Kids was founded in 2002 with the main purpose to improve the well-being of children by increasing the proportion of children growing up with involved, responsible, committed and loving fathers. Whilst our main vision is to support fathers our broad vision has always been to empower families. A family is made up of a mother and ...

Most weekday mornings Alison and I get up at about 5.40AM, push each other out of bed, and go for our early morning ‘Gym & Fitness Walk Session’, at least that’s what I call it. We walk down to the gym about 2-3 minutes and hold hands as we walk. We work out together and then we take a longer route back to our home all the while holding hands with ...

I can always remember Dr Bruce Robson, Australia’s best-selling fatherhood author, telling the guys at the ‘Good to Great’ Fatherhood Course about Janis Joplin’s father. For those who don’t know her musical history, Janis Joplin was one of the great female vocalists of the late sixties. The movie ‘The Rose’ released in 1979 was based on her life story. Rolling Stone magazine has placed her in the top 30 female vocalists ...