My good friend Wayne Butler from the Shared Parenting Council would contend, in his courageous and exhaustive article reprinted in part below, that A Sickness has Fallen on the Family Law System. The team at Dads4Kids would contend that a sickness has fallen on society at large and this sickness is now being reflected more and more in its institutions and laws. That condition is seen in the current push for ...

Some years ago our eldest son, 23 years old, got married to the love of his life. If the wedding was any indication, they would have had a great time together on their honeymoon in Vanuatu.  They came back glowing and it wasn’t just from the sun.  Young love is such a beautiful thing. For the record it is important not to forget it. The number of children living in our ...

I received an early morning phone call from a producer on 5AA radio station in Adelaide, wanting an interview with someone from Dads4Kids. They wanted a comment on the famous Adelaide Football coach who had been murdered by his son. I hesitantly said ‘yes’, and then quickly started a Google search to find out more about the horrific crime. It seems that there had been some form of confrontation in the ...

There is a war on men but the greatest perpetrators are the men themselves. As Walt Kelly once said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Our single greatest enemy is our own passivity – mine included. Daily, I make the decision as Robert Lewis says, to “reject passivity.” That is why you are getting this newsletter. The number one objection women have about husbands is their passivity. I ...

Every now and then something comes along on Facebook that is a breath of fresh air. Usually you are wading through rubbish but this is something really worth sharing. I will let Sam Judah from BBC Trending tell the story of an impromptu “How to not discipline your child video” that has been seen over 21 million times and still counting.

We all want to be happy but how many want to pay the price for true happiness. In an article called “Ten Keys to Happier Living” on the Actions for Happiness website it says, Helping others is not only good for them and a good thing to do, it also makes us happier and healthier too. Giving also connects us to others, creating stronger communities and helping to build a happier ...

Every Sunday morning, without fail, for the last 13 years, fathers across Australia have received the weekly newsletter to inspire fathers and encourage families. For many dads our weekly newsletter and our TV ads are an absolute joy but this week the joy is two days late. The reason: a combination of both overwork (lack of help) and electrical problems. Ron Hellyer who has faithfully edited the newsletter, found the pictures ...

This week Dads4Kids launches its annual end of financial year ‘Help the Children’ Appeal. One great reason to give to the ‘Help the Children’ Appeal is because Dads4Kids is helping dads live longer than in years gone by. Last year, on 6 November 2014, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released an important news item: “Aussie males born from now on could plan on receiving a ‘Happy 80th Birthday’ card, as ...

If you have been reading this newsletter for any length of time you would have realised by now that I am a self-confessed marriage junkie. In other words I am very interested in the latest research on marriage and family. Not only do I like the latest research, but I love viral videos on marriage and family just as much. This week I want to give you a bit of both ...

Next Saturday, 30th May 2015, we celebrate Australia’s 12th National Day of Thanksgiving. www.thanksgiving.org.au The National Day of Thanksgiving 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 earliest beginnings although I resigned from the Board last year to make way for new blood. I believe in ...

Being a father carries with it some pretty serious responsibilities. That is why it is so important to learn to laugh, and that’s why we at Dads4Kids publish weekly doses of humour for busy dads. In 1979 Norman Cousins wrote, ‘Anatomy of an Illness (As Perceived by the Patient)’. Cousins had Ankylosing Spondylitis, a rheumatoid-like disorder. Considering the hospital noisy and impersonal, Cousins checked into a hotel room where he read ...

Our life always speaks. Sometimes our life can speak louder in our death than in our actual living. For me, I am still working at the living part, but for Andrew Chan his death has touched a nation, and arguably the whole world, in a way that his living could not. Australia was plunged into deep sadness with the midnight execution of Andrew Chan and his seven friends by firing squad ...

I will never forget the story I once read of a young woman in China after World War II. The country was in turmoil, there were millions of refugees and it was the middle of winter. As the woman trudged through the snow in sub-zero temperatures she hugged close her six month old baby. The little protection she had from the cold was wrapped around her baby boy. Early the next ...

It’s been an inspiring week for me in more ways than one. I was one of more than 2 million people who attended a Dawn Service on Anzac Day. All over Australia records were broken. The Canberra War Memorial Dawn Service had 120,000 people attend, three times the number of last year. That means that almost one third of the total population of the city of Canberra (385,000) got out of ...

This coming Saturday marks the Anzac Centenary, which in more ways than one is ‘A Day to Remember’. The Centenary marks one hundred years of remembering our fathers who went off to war. Many did not return and many who did spent a life time recovering from the memory of the horrors of war. Anzac Day is bittersweet for me, just as it is for a lot of Australians. War brings ...

I just rang a friend who is going around Australia on a 4 and half month adventure with his family. They are just about to cross the Nullarbor Plain which contains the longest straight stretch (146.6 km) of road between Balladonia and Caiguna in the world. He and his wife, along with his 9 and 7 year old sons and 4 year old daughter are having the time of their lives. ...

Well all good things this side of heaven must come to an end. What did we learn in the last module of the Marriage Kit, Module 5 “From Me to We”? What do we think of the online Marriage Kit? I will let Alison answer first: Alison: Initially I was surprised that Francine and Byron chose Decision Making as their final topic for this 5 week course. However as we got ...

I sometimes look at what is happening in the world and I get pretty depressed. Sometimes I question even the value of our work at Dads4Kids. It seems our world is hell-bent on total annihilation. The attacks on fatherhood and motherhood are growing at an alarming rate and no one blinks an eyelid. Anyone who declares that children need a mother and a father, like me, are obviously hate-mongers and bigots. ...

Alison: Francine & Byron have excelled in this module. Although we personally know this amazing couple, we have never yet done one of their marriage courses – until now! So we have no idea if they have always produced such thought provoking material. One of our highlights from this module was their insights on ‘Desire Discrepancy’. In most marriages there is a desire discrepancy between verbal and physical communication. The low ...

One of the biggest family holidays of the year is coming up this next weekend. It is a long weekend with a purpose. Our Easter holidays start on Good Friday (originally known as God Friday), going through Saturday to Easter Sunday with an extra Monday thrown in for good measure. Yes, we will all have our fill of Easter eggs and family fun, but there is a wonderful lesson to learn. ...