If there was a crash course in what every father needs to know, that could be crushed into just 30 minutes, what would it look like? Probably pretty close to what former Queensland Father of the Year Darren Lewis shares here. I read on a sticker inside a tour bus, in all places while doing a Hollywood tour in Los Angeles, The most important things in life are not things. – LA ...

Today, Chris and Guy answer the question: what is really involved in being a father in a child’s world? Episode #31 of Real Talk 4 Real Men. When you became a daddy, did you think that being a father was something just so natural, you didn’t really need to think very much about it? That was Chris’ experience more than four decades ago, but he had to learn the hard way ...

Around half of all toddlers are considered fussy eaters, screwing up their nose at salad and pitching butternut pumpkin from their high chairs. Establishing healthy eating patterns in children is important and can have a big impact on their everyday health, growth and cognitive development. So, how do we avoid the daily food fight? Cancer Council Queensland has five tips to get parents started. One, be a good role model: Children ...

Some days, being a mother is just plain hard. Today was one of those days. I promised to take my boys to play mini golf. Secretly, I was looking forward to it more than they were! I’d been wanting to try out this place for months and finally the day had arrived but… My youngest was in a bad mood all morning; he threw a tantrum because there wasn’t enough honey ...

Back by popular demand, Darren Lewis shares the 5 essentials for guiding your sons into authentic manhood. How can a 29-year-old male be married and have 3 kids, and only then discover that he wasn’t really a man? That was the experience of former Queensland Father of the Year and founder of Fathering Adventures, Darren Lewis. Darren realised he had no vision for manhood, fatherhood and husbandhood. What we cannot define, ...

My good friend Robert Day sent me a link. He said, “Check out Gavin Topps and his ‘Fight Like a Pro’ Program”. Rob is a Dads4Kids board member. He has worked with men all his life. He knows men. So, I just had to check it out for myself. Below is the challenging call to Manhood from the Gavin Topps Rite of Passage for the Modern Man landing page. “Friend, if ...

There is a truckload of parenting advice on how to fathers can make more time for their families. This is especially the case for new fathers and fathers-to-be. Dragging ourselves through chapter after chapter of self-help drudgery, only to be told how much we’re not doing, and how much more we need to be doing, can be a soul-sucking experience. What’s offered as help to maximise time — nearly always with ...

We all get a bit of shock pretty early on in married life. For some, it is day 1: “This isn’t what I expected!” At some point, you will probably find yourself asking yourself the question: Is marriage worth it? Are you married?  How has it been going for you lately?  You wouldn’t be the first person to stop and ask yourself that question. Most of us men enter into marriage ...

Sometimes parents can feel a little helpless when anything they do makes their child’s tantrum worse. Below, Jess Mannion sheds light on how we can respond to kids’ tantrums in her blog post titled, ‘Public Tantrums – How To Remain The Parent’. We have all been there. As our children get older, theoretically the tantrums get easier to deal with — we can explain things more, empathise with how upset they ...

Dads, investing in your teenage daughter is an investment that will deliver positive returns for decades — perhaps even for eternity. One way you can invest in her is to affirm her as a valuable young woman — just for who she is. Guy recently took up the challenge to invest in one of his teenage daughters on a Fathering Adventure to tropical North Queensland. Find out why, how and the ...

Look out for health shocks found in the average lunchbox, with parents preparing to pack the first of about 200 lunches per child over the year from today. Research shows many lunchboxes contain the recommended serves of fruit, but can be alarmingly low on vegetables and high on hidden sugar and salt. Parents may be packing foods that appear healthy, and would be shocked to discover high levels of saturated fat, sugar ...

Mother, according to a well-known online encyclopedia, is: “A female parent of a child. Mothers are women who inhabit or perform the role of bearing some relation to their children, who may or may not be their biological offspring.” A mother, from the point of view of Wikipedia, sounds so perfectly neat and precise in definition. If only there was a textbook that was as neat and precise that could explain ...

Arguably, the most intelligent thing any real man should be doing is caring for his wife. In this short post, Guy outlines 7 easy things you can do today to love your wife and improve your life. I’ve heard it said that a man’s wife is his glory.  Another version often stated is “happy wife, happy life”. Proverbs 12:4a outlines it a slightly different way: “A virtuous [or in some translations: ...

Change is stressful, so we all need tips on how to deal with change. Real Talk 4 Real Men episode 56. Change brings on stress, and so in part 3 of Thrive Through Change, we dedicate an entire episode on how to deal with stress. We all know that when negative things are going on in our lives, it causes stress. Things like a relationship breakup, a job redundancy, a health ...

What is the secret to raising resilient children? Matthew McConaughey is an extremely popular American actor and producer who has a story to tell about raising resilient children. His new book, a memoir called Greenlights, which includes some of these stories, is selling well. McConaughey has received many awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Here is a short transcript (7:28 – 11:44) of ...

Anyone who has been a father and then a stepfather knows that they aren’t the same. While many aspects of these two roles are similar, it is the unique ones that lead to disillusionment. Franklin put it this way: “I’ve been to every Promise Keepers conference and I’ve studied fathering with my men’s group many times. But nothing has prepared me for being a stepfather. With my own kids I have a ...

Most people love stories. I am a sucker for a good story. “Have you got your marbles?” is an old but good story with a powerful punchline. Let me know what you think! Check it out and post a comment below at the Daily Dad. I was at the corner grocery store buying some early potatoes. I noticed a small boy, delicate of bone and feature, ragged but clean, hungrily appraising ...

Mahatma Gandhi said, “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Eric Barker, it would seem, has been inspired by Gandhi’s wisdom in his science-based article called, “How to Raise Happy Kids: 10 Steps Backed by Science.”  Eric Barker is the creator of the blog Barking Up the Wrong Tree, and the book of the same name, which presents science-based answers and expert ...

The DIDs story, Part 1. My name is Tony Miller, and I am the founder and national coordinator of a group called Dads in Distress, a dedicated support group of men whose immediate concern is to stem the present trend of male suicide due to the trauma of divorce or separation. Current statistics indicate that 5.3 males per day or 37 males per week (ABS Information Paper, Suicides 2001) will take ...

There I was, staggering down the dark hallway at 5.30 a.m., trying not to wake the children. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement. What is that, I thought? Maybe a mouse? No, it looks bigger than a mouse. Maybe it’s a rat? Peering down in the darkness, I realised it was a frog. But how did such a large frog get into the house? All of these ...