They sell books sometimes at the gym my wife and I go to. The other morning, always on the lookout for books for me, our readers and our grandchildren, my wife excitedly called me across to the gym book table. Look at this, she said, holding up a book of illustrated dad jokes by Katrina Germein called, “My Dad Thinks He’s Funny”. Whenever I say, “I’m hungry,” Dad says, “Hello Hungry. ...

Some time ago I came across a Tim Hawkins’ video on YouTube. Tim Hawkins is a musical comedian with a difference. He made up some very interesting new words to the Green Day song, “Time of Your Life” and renamed it ‘Things You Don’t Say to Your Wife.’ The second verse goes like this: I planned a hunting trip next week on your birthday. I didn’t ask you ‘cause I knew ...

Firstly I and the team at Dads4Kids wishes you a Happy Father’s Day! Secondly, we thank you for your support and encouragement to produce and get the Dads4kids ‘Love your Children’ Community Service Announcement adverts out to TV stations all over Australia. We have heard many reports of people seeing the new advertisement so far. Even people in Timor have reported seeing the Dads4Kids ad on Australian TV, broadcast from Darwin ...

Elizabeth Svoboda, the author of What Makes a Hero says, “New research is lending texture and credence to what generations of story tellers have known in their bones – that books, poems, movies and real life stories can affect the way we think and even, by extension, the way we act. As the late US poet laureate, Stanley Kunitz puts it in The Layers, “I have walked through many lives, some ...

Putting together the Dads4Kids Community Service Announcements is always an exciting time for me. It is an honour to film fathers in their natural habitat with their children. It is both an inspiring and humbling experience for me. The previous TV adverts would be hard to beat! In an eight-day period we videoed 24 fathers and their families in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Twenty fathers made the cut. Those ...

Editors Note: We congratulate  Anthony Albanese on his courage to share this powerful and personal story with the people of  Australia. We reprint the full article for our readers interest. It is ironic that Anthony Albanese can share such a commanding story with Australia that shows the desperate longing that each child has to know and beloved by their biological mother and father and yet deny that same right to children ...

Each week I try to be encouraging, but real. The trouble is the ‘real’ part has a way of whacking you in the side of the face when you least expect it. Many men have been whacked so many times that they just don’t want to get up off the floor and sometimes they can’t. Teaching men how to endure the fire and the rain of life is one of the ...

Several years ago my wife and went on a family research trip to the USA. It was a rich experience on many levels. Firstly, from video footage shot on the trip, we created our first documentary on marriage and fatherhood called the Marriage Revolution. We even built a website to promote it.  Secondly, the place we conducted a lot of interviews for the documentary was the Smart Marriages Conference in Florida. ...

The title of this week’s Dad4Kids newsletter is taken from Dr James Dobson’s ground breaking book Dare to Dicipline which was published in 1976. I did read parts of the book in the early eighties but I had already formed my opinions on the need for proper boundaries and discipline for children, even before I had my own. Fortunately both my wife and I had roughly the same ideas and that ...

They say that there are two things you can be sure of in life – death and taxes. Most of us run from them both for good reason. Death is the scary one, but I guess one gets more used to the idea the older they get. But it still seems to catch us by surprise. Several years ago I was surprised to learn that my good friend and colleague Jack ...

We racked our brains for weeks without a breakthrough! We knew we had a good story, but we didn’t know what to call it. Getting the name of your child right is important, but so is the name of a high impact life changing documentary. Once you have a name, you are usually stuck with it. In the world of documentaries and movies, getting the right name is everything. Think ‘Jaws’, ...

In 2009 we flew into USA on the day of Michael Jackson’s memorial service on the 7th July. It was a surreal feeling. There was a sadness on the plane that it was hard to put your finger on. Looking back I suspect many on that flight were actually going to the memorial service. Michael Jackson was extremely popular here in Australia, as he was around the world. Over 17,500 people ...

We are constantly bombarded about fatherhood and family myths by a media who live by the maxim, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story”. The end result? – the exotic and the statically minor always grab the headlines. The stories of the ordinary fathers who are providing, nurturing and caring for their children and their families are forgotten. What is even worse, fathers are maligned for ...

Before talking more about the fact that we believe Dads4Kids has saved the lives of 1,807 men over the last eight years, here’s a quick update on our progress toward the matching challenge of $23,000 … … We’re five days into the week-long matching period and we are about three quarters of the way to reaching the match amount.  REMEMBER: every gift given between now and next Thursday 30 June  — up to ...

I have a very close friend who is the managing director and part owner of a large software company with about 80 employees. Although a very busy man he is also a very committed dad, all at the same time. I was invited to his surprise 40th birthday party. His T-shirt said it all, “The first 40 Years of childhood are always the hardest”. We both played extensively with his new ...

Some time ago I received a request to speak at a Fair Divorce Forum at a local Leagues Club in Wollongong. When I first received this invitation, my inclination was to ‘not accept’ because I don’t believe that divorce can be fair. Life is not fair and neither is love. My good friend Jeff Dakers prevailed upon me to reconsider, and so I include the following excerpt from my speech given ...

We live in an increasingly bizarre world which is at War with itself, The war has been against women and mothers in particular. The war has shifted over the last several decades to be against men and fathers. Increasingly this war is being waged against our children too as this disturbing War on Our Children video demonstrates. This war is now on our doorsteps and in our schools and we must ...

Brendan Hayward is a brave young man who is again baring his soul to all my blog readers to help them understand how important they are to their children. I shared his story many years ago but good stories are worth repeating. Good stories that inspire give us all hope as fathers to “keep on keeping on” for our children and our families. Many children take their dad for granted. In ...

Next Saturday, 28 May 2016, we celebrate Australia’s thirteenth National Day of Thanks.  It 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 early beginnings. For over almost two decades I have conducted seminars where I asked people to stand up and begin to say thank you ...

Music is a wonderful gift.  It can transport you to places you would never normally go.  You might say that I am a little biased, having spent half my life as a musician, songwriter and producer.  Some time ago, at a marriage retreat my wife and I attended, I heard heavenly music playing in the course breaks.  It was the angelic voice of Eva Cassidy singing Sting’s love song, ‘Fields of ...