By Bettina Arndt -- The Sydney Morning Herald, April 28, 2014 A belief that children under three should not stay overnight with their separated or divorced father has underpinned our family law system for years. Has it all been a mistake? Bettina Arndt reports. Editor’s Note: Little has changed in the last ten years. Now, more than ever, changes are needed in Australia’s family law system. Across Australia, fathers are being ...
Fatigue can be fatal. Like grief, it hits every one of us in different ways. The best we can do is work the process by way of exercise, rest, and diet, in order to manage a way through it. While maintaining a healthy lifestyle adds another chore to the dad-list, being healthy-minded not only builds energy -- it relieves stress, clears the head, and opens the door to more family activities. ...
Before we become fathers, we are free to live like children ourselves. We work towards our own ends, we engage in relationships to satiate our own needs and desires, we enjoy leisure-some pursuits based entirely on what we enjoy. Fatherhood, by necessity, changes our focus and our lifestyle. For myself, fatherhood was the precipitating factor in my finally and irrevocably, growing up. I believe that most new fathers (and their partners!) ...
Language is a wonderful thing. Through the power of language, one person can translate the most complex and nebulous of ideas into terms that another can understand. Thus, not only the understanding but also the realisation of a new or different concept can be transposed from one mind to another. It’s really a miraculous process. Powerful and adaptable tool that it is, language is not the basis of communication, just a ...
Editor's Note: This story is so lovely, we can't help but run it again. Feel free to send in your own stories of those early days! ~~~ It’s hard to believe so much time has passed. My son, Seth, is now ten weeks old, and so intelligent he’s bound to make a future Prime Minister. (Not that I’m biased!) Recently, I reflected on my experiences during Seth’s birth. A heap has ...
It was 12:00am on Sunday, the 1st of September -- Father’s Day, to be precise. There I was, frantically gathering clothes and bits 'n' pieces according to my wife’s somewhat disjointed instruction. She was roaming about the house with a hot wheat sack across her rather overgrown abdomen. I couldn’t believe it. Had the moment finally arrived? After nine -- closer to ten long months, was I finally going to be ...
During the first year of my daughter’s life, I found motherhood quite difficult. I felt swamped by my new role, and somewhere along the way, I lost myself. I felt I had been transformed into a breastfeeding, nappy-changing, baby-burping robot. I had put on about 30 kilos while pregnant and although I lost 15 kilos in the first 8 months post-birth, the other 15 didn’t look like it was ever going ...
When you analyse the social science about the importance of dads, it is unequivocal. Dads are vitally important to their children’s success in a myriad of ways. As George Herbert said, “One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.” This is not speculation -- it is reality. Joshua A Krisch puts the case well for this in an article titled "The Science of Dad and the ‘Father Effect’". The subtitle says ...
Nappy changing is an acquired skill. Once you have mastered this fine art, you can look forward to all the following levels of fatherhood! When it comes to the art and skill of fathering, a lot has changed since the ‘wonder years’ of our father’s or grandfathers’ generation. Oh, the good old days -- the prospective parent, relegated to the smoke-filled waiting room, hospital staff deeming it inappropriate for fathers to ...
Life with a baby turns regular activities into entirely new and wonderful experiences. It’s hard to believe so much time has passed. My son, Seth, is now ten weeks old, and so intelligent he’s bound to make a future Prime Minister. (Not that I’m biased!) Recently, I reflected on my experiences during Seth’s birth. A heap has happened since then. He’s grown, developed skills, changed appearance, and I’ve learned there is ...
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