Too many times I’ve been burned by good intentions, watching a New Year’s resolution run aground on the rocks of February — if they even made it that far. However, I have made changes in my life that stuck — including several this year that I plan to tweak or build upon as 2026 begins.
Kurt Mahlburg
In 1952 Albert Einstein was asked by a Princeton doctoral student what was left in the world for original dissertation on research? Einstein replied, “Find out about prayer!” I certainly agree with Einstein, but I would also say, “Do some research and find out about the ‘power of love’.” In our modern society we know so much about so many things, but very little about the things that really matter. Let ...
Warwick Marsh
Some time ago I was sitting eating with dinner with my family and enjoying their company. We had a young woman staying with us so I asked her how our home was different to the one she was raised in. She said with a sigh, “We hardly ever ate our dinner at the table. Mostly it was always around the TV and as a result we didn’t talk as a family ...
Warwick Marsh
Just this morning I walked out my driveway at 6AM to go down to the Gym with my wife and I found a dead black snake in our front driveway near the road. It was only a baby about 400mm long and I felt quite sorry for it. Seeing the poor deceased baby snake made all the memories from my childhood suddenly flood back through my mind. You see I love ...
Warwick Marsh
Happy Father’s Day! We at Dads4Kids salute you for your unswerving commitment to being a Dad. See below the 60 sec version of this year’ Father’s Day community service announcement which is now playing on the following stations across Australia: SEVEN Network, NBN Newcastle, Prime 7, Southern Cross, Imparja, WIN TV, Australian Christian Channel, SBS and Channel 31. We always try to come up with a new advert to encourage Dads ...
Warwick Marsh
The whole world was gripped by the story of 12 boys and their coach, trapped in a cave for 18 days but then rescued by hundreds of men of all nationalities. The men who rescued these boys had one thing in common, they were all possessors of a thing called ‘toxic masculinity’. One of the Thai divers, a former navy seal, was so imbued with this so-called toxic masculinity, he gave ...
Warwick Marsh
Let me give you ten irrefutable reasons why you as a father need to make sure that you get your family to turn off the TV, computer, mobile phone and eat together as a family. Of course, there will be some occasions when this is just not possible. For instance, when Australia gets into the grand final of the World Cup Soccer competition. Now, that’s a good reason to have a ...
Warwick Marsh
‘Family Still Our Pride’ was the two page headline in Australia’s biggest selling newspaper, the Sunday Telegraph. This headline appeared several years ago but there is no reason to believe anything has really changed in the Australian psyche. Family is still number one for the vast majority of Australians, and I do mean vast. The article went on like this, “Scrabble anyone? It seems family time is back – our favourite ...
Warwick Marsh
Carey Casey, CEO of the National Fathering Centre in Kansas, encourages fathers to ‘get down on your knees’ to play with your children. If you have young daughters, Carey says dads should ‘be happy to have a tea party with them’ even if it is not quite your cup of tea. Carey Casey shares a Fatherhood Story Roland Warren, former CEO of the National Fatherhood Initiative, describes the three laws of fatherhood ...
Warwick Marsh
Harmon Killebrew said, “My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, ‘You’re tearing up the grass’; ‘We’re not raising grass,’ Dad would reply. ‘We’re raising boys’.” That may well have been the reply of Dan Fowlks to his detractors. Dan’s viral video has been seen well over 161,000,000 times on Facebook and totalled multi-million views on YouTube and other platforms. The ...
Warwick Marsh
Ronald Regan said, “Each generation goes further than the generation preceding because it stands on the shoulders of that generation”. That is the hope and heart of every father. Listen to the video below of my daughter singing the Star-Spangled Banner at a USA/Canadian Ice Hockey match so that I can tell you the story behind the video and give you three keys to help your children do better than you ...
Warwick Marsh
‘When I’m Gone’ is a song by controversial rapper, Eminem, that really hits home in more ways than one. In 2006 this song went to the top in the Australian charts and Top Ten around the world. Interestingly Australia was the only country where it went to number one. I think Australians are attracted to honesty and Eminem lets it all out of the bag. Eminem, Marshall Mathers, has been one ...
Warwick Marsh
Charles Chestnutt said, “The workings of the human heart are the profoundest mystery of the universe. One moment they make us despair of our kind, and the next we see in them the reflection of the divine image”. These words are probably an apt description of the new cinematic story/documentary called the ‘Heart of Man’ that can be seen in Australian cinemas this coming Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 June. ‘Heart ...
Warwick Marsh
The Law of Iroquois says, “In every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations”. If you want to leave a legacy for your children, you should do the same. However, following such wise advice is always easier said than done. There is another saying that I learned many years ago, “If only age had youth and youth had age”. Perhaps this sums up the ...
Warwick Marsh
My coal mining friend told me a story one day that still sends shivers down my spine. He was working many kilometres underground under the mountains that make up the Wollongong escarpment with his friend a fellow miner. He and his friend had completed a long shift extracting coal from the depths of the mine. They were travelling in a group in a coal train from the coalface back to the ...
Warwick Marsh
An ancient Chinese proverb says, “He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever”. This quote is the best way to explain the power of asking the right questions to help you sustain your relationship with your wife and your family in the long term. You might remember when you first met your wife you could talk about ...
Warwick Marsh
Dads4Kids has been running leadership summits now for many years. I am constantly surprised at how effective such gatherings are at empowering men to change. I remember the phone call I got from an employer of one of the men, a week after one of our early Men & Father’s Leadership Summits. His first words on the phone were rather dramatic. “What did you do to my employee?” It was almost ...
Warwick Marsh
This is an amazing story by my good friend Mark Jeffery who has four beautiful children. Mark is a single dad and a faithful board member of Dads4Kids. The short title of the story says it all, “Heroes – Dads in the Emergency Room.” My daughter sliced into her thumb with a Stanley knife – still makes my skin crawl every time I say it. When it happened she was at ...
Warwick Marsh
Earlier this year Dr Jerome Teelucksingh, my friend from Trinidad in the Caribbean, called for the inaugural celebration of International Day of the Boy Child on May 16. Dr Jerome Teelucksingh also founded International Mens Day. I suggested to Jerome for the sake of ease of communication that we shorten it to International Boys’ Day or more colloquially just Boys Day. Jerome said yes, and so the team at Dads4Kids helped ...
Warwick Marsh
They say a friend in need is a friend indeed. Yes, we need your help. Dads4Kids the organisation I volunteer for is in the process of renewing our website and newsletter. We also want to grow and improve our range of services, but we need your expert advice to do so. All we are asking is that you give 5 minutes of your precious time to fill out the Dads4Kids Online ...
Warwick Marsh
Mothers are under more pressure today than they have ever been. That’s why Dads4Kids is initiating a “Thanking Mothers” CSA TV Ad campaign scheduled for release in the lead up to Mother’s Day on 13 May 2018. Unfortunately, the amazing sacrifice that mothers make is often invisible to Dads and children. Mothers are not appreciated as much as they should be in the broader community either. The team at Dads4KIds want ...
Warwick Marsh
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Dads 4 Kids News is for writers to share interesting insights, news, and stories, to encourage dads and their families.
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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
Goodbye New Year’s Resolutions, Hello New Year’s Calibrations
Too many times I’ve been burned by good intentions, watching a New Year’s resolution run aground on the rocks of February — if they even made it that far. However, I have made changes in my life that stuck — including several this year that I plan to tweak or build upon as 2026 begins.
Who Sank the Boat?
I recently represented the Fatherhood Foundation (Dads4Kids) at a national workshop conducted by the Department of Health and Ageing. Our task was to contribute towards an understanding of suicide amongst men in the 25-44 age group, and to assist in developing a strategic approach to prevention. Some of the discussions ...
Support All Fathers
I heard recently that over half of the Australian veterans of the first Gulf War still suffer from ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’ and that many of them will probably never recover. The focus of counselling services appears to be to encourage and help veterans learn to live with the symptoms of ...
Make Memories with Your Children
There are quite a few things that I like about the Easter holidays. I like the traditional early morning surfs at my local beach. The king tides sometimes cover a rock outcrop that normally remains exposed at high tide. When the swell is small, this produces a nice little wave ...
Child Support: Deception
A few days ago, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi Information Minister, stared unblinkingly into a camera and declared that the US invaders were surrounded by Iraqi soldiers and were about to surrender. The thinking and understanding of many Iraqi people had been so primed and manipulated by deceptions and lies ...
A New Vision: Giving the Fathers Back to the Children
The Childcare Industry and the De-Fathering of Society Part 5 The preceding articles in this series have argued that while the Federal Government’s generosity and concern for families may be genuine, its actions are lopsided, biased against non-custodial parents, and contribute to the de-fathering of society. The crisis of fatherless ...
On the Loss of My Dad
Transcript of Alanna Siozos' Eulogy, April 2003 This is the hardest thing I have ever done, most likely the hardest thing I will ever do. There are so many things I can tell you about my father, but at times like these I find it hard to say anything at ...
The Well-Being of Children is Being Sacrificed On the Altar of Radical Feminist Legislation
The Childcare Industry and the De-Fathering of Society Part 4 Government funding of the childcare industry was not designed to remove children from their fathers. The fact that it does so is a consequence of the cultural bias against separated fathers that exists in our culture. This bias pervades every ...
Social Engineering through Childcare Funding: No Place for Dad
The Childcare Industry and the De-Fathering of Society Part 3 The childcare industry is experiencing phenomenal growth and providing lucrative returns for the owners of private childcare centres. This growth is fed by the provision of government funding for childcare. While the subsidies are designed to encourage mothers of young ...
Childcare Subsidies: Removing Children from Their Parents Creates Profit for Investors
The Childcare Industry and the De-Fathering of Society Part 2 One of the most notable features of the present Federal Government is its desire to help families. However, the impact of its policies often goes well beyond its intentions. Sometimes, at great expense, a new set of problems is created ...
Childcare: Good Intentions are Paving the Road to a Fatherless Society
The Childcare Industry and the De-Fathering of Society Part 1 Prime Minister John Howard has stated that no previous government has done as much as the present one in helping families. If the degree of help can be measured by the level of government spending on assistance programmes, then this ...
Daytime Dads
My last article mentioned a report from the Australian Institute of Family Studies that revealed that an alarmingly high number of children spend the day with their father but never sleep over. These children, and their fathers, are being denied the opportunity for a normal parent/child relationship and all the ...
Child Support
One of the reasons my life has been so good is that I have had a good father. I also want to be a good father to my own children. However, the freedom to make this choice no longer exists for separated fathers in Australian society. Family Law legislation in ...
Family Law: Reform Legislation and Values
Most separated fathers would understand that the most effective way to achieve fairness and equity in family law is through legislative reform. This reform needs to be underpinned and sustained by a change in social values that re-establishes a recognition of the value of fathering. The frontline for both these ...
Shared Parenting
One of the things I enjoy about spending time with my children is the opportunity to drop everything else I do. This is through necessity as well as through choice, since my children offer me no other option. I’m involved with a number of community groups which require a considerable ...
Single Dads & the Family Law System
It may by reassuring for separated fathers to know that many federal parliamentarians have some awareness of their plight. The efforts of many men in communicating their experiences and highlighting the injustices inherent in the Family Law System is paying dividends. During the recent meeting of the Fatherhood Foundation/Dads4Kids at ...
Just Do It
A young boy sat in a science class, his eyes fixed on a beaker sitting on the teacher’s desk. The teacher’s words were muffled to the boy’s hearing as he thought of his dad and how great it would be when he was no longer busy at the firm and ...
Fatherhood Foundation National Council Meeting
Last Sunday, I travelled to Canberra with Warwick Marsh and his son Nathaniel, to attend the inaugural Fatherhood Foundation (Dads4Kids) National Council Meeting. This was also the National Day of Mourning for those killed by the terrorist attack in Bali. We attended a service in Parliament House that evening, where ...
The Greatest Wealth
School holidays have well and truly ended, during which many fathers have had the opportunity to spend some time with their children. For some fathers, the sense that their children are merely ‘visiting’ them, often underscores the idea in both father and children that the children ‘belong’ somewhere else. This ...
Family Values
‘Promoting family values’ has been the catch-cry of both well-intentional and vote-hungry politicians throughout the ages. In Australia in recent years, it has had a particularly strong and enthusiastic resurgence. Who can forget Bob Hawke's emotional electoral promise that, “by the Year 2000, no Australian child will be living in ...
Grand-Dads
Speaking as a grandfather of twelve grandchildren, I am grateful for having been a father, and now a grandfather. It’s a constant challenge, doing the right thing all the time. I wonder if the grandkids know that saying, ‘Like father, like son’? I’m gradually learning! And how about this one: ...
