Related Articles from the News
International Men’s Day – Helping Men and Boys
Launched in 1999, and now celebrated in more than 90 countries worldwide, International Men’s Day is going from strength to strength. International Men’s Day celebrates positive male role models and the loving strength that men bring to their families and communities. We highlight the need to address the male suicide crisis and we often campaign for improvement in men’s health. ...
When History Repeats, Choose Freedom
We remember sitting with a young couple who were locked in combat. She was prone to reactive outbursts and he was mystified as to what he was doing to trigger it. As we probed her about her family of origin, the penny dropped: she was repeating a relationship pattern that she had established with her mother. With this new insight, ...
The Parenting Pace
There are hills surrounding Hobart that shouldn’t be attempted without crampons and ropes. Building on the side of such precipices affords extensive vistas over the city and beyond to a succession of mountains or ocean horizon. The gentler slopes also made for a great proving ground for my daughters as toddlers when gravity plucked hold of them to propel them ...
What Pixar Taught Me About Dreams
We all have dreams: to start a business… volunteer in a third-world country… write a book… Dreams are important. And then God answered: Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. – Habakkuk 2:2 (The Message) I’ve recently learnt a valuable lesson -- to not get ...
Your Children Need Adventure
Adventure is essential for developing maturity and independence through firsthand experiences. When undertaken as a family, adventure forms lasting marvellous memories and excellent life skills. Some time ago, I rang a friend who was going around Australia on a 41/2-month adventure with his family. They were just about to cross the Nullarbor Plain, which contains the longest straight stretch (146.6 ...
Single Dad Runs 500km with Kids in a Wheelbarrow for RFDS Fundraiser
Australian dad James Brougham is setting the dad-life bar high, running 500km while pushing his kids in a wheelbarrow to raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS). So far, the single father and his young sidekicks, both under the age of six, have made it 387km, raising AUD $7,196 for the medical aviation organisation founded by the Reverend ...
Blood is Thicker Than Water
The family law system is unfairly stacked against separated fathers who simply want joint custody of their children. "Custody -- Blood is Thicker Than Water" is an inspiring true story of a loving father who fought the system so that he could be a dad to his son. As Dads, we are all our brother’s keepers. In this case, Single ...
Why Shared Activities Are Essential to the Dad-Daughter Bond
A majority of dads bond with their daughters through shared activities. Dad and daughter bonds are linked to what a 2013 Baylor University study called ‘closeness in the doing.’ “This is,” Baylor affirmed, “the masculine style of building closeness.” Mums tend to bond through the “feminine orientation of talking” -- an observation the study described as “closeness in dialogue.” Building ...
TIME – The Currency of Relationships
There’s an old adage in the world of parenting advice: Kids spell LOVE as T.I.M.E. Kids don’t need things nearly much as they need a parent’s attention and availability. It’s a classic mistake that we make all too often; we give them stuff we’ve bought instead of the thing they most need from us -- our interest and investment in ...
Why It’s Okay For Your Child to Fail
Focus on Effort, Not Outcome Do you get excited when your children get everything right? Or do you get excited when your children make mistakes and feel like what they’re doing is hard? Studies show that when we praise or reward kids for being brilliant, they get caught up in ‘proving’ how good they are. And this leads to them ...
