The science shows that families who play together stay together, for more reasons than one. Jim Burns, in his article “Families that Play Together Stay Together”, said, “Playing together is an essential trait of happy, healthy families. Certainly, our children need to do their chores, and of course they need discipline with consistency, but what they also need desperately from their parents is a rousing game of hide-and-seek or a monthly ...
This week I would like to share an abbreviated article by former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia John Anderson, published in The Australian: “Black lives matter, but dads should matter first”. John’s main thesis is that most of the problems in our society, among both white and black, can be traced back to the Fatherless epidemic sweeping our Western world in particular. My wife and I have spent a lot of ...
"In family life, be completely present," is a saying of Lao Tzu from 600 BC. Here we are now, 2600 years later, and we are still struggling to learn this simple but profound piece of advice. This advice is all the more critical for fathers, and even more critical for fathers living in the twenty-first century. Dr Justin Coulson has written a book on parenting titled: “What your child needs from ...
Two weeks ago, I wrote about “Work Day with Dad”. In the article, I told the story of a number of dads who had changed their children for the better by simply hanging out with them. The act of taking your children to work, or taking time from work to be with your children, is especially impactful. This response from my friend Stephen, a very dedicated father of two young children, ...
I once went to a men’s breakfast where Paul Bartlett, then a father of young children, was speaking about the importance of fathers in the lives of their children. He told the story of how, once a month, his dad, who was in a high-pressure management job, used to take him to the Saturday markets at Campbelltown, west of Sydney. Paul used to look forward to this time with his father, ...
“Love is a many-splendored thing” is the title of a popular song from the fifties. Many people would argue the sanity of that song and concur instead with Shakespeare who said, “Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage”! Nobody would disagree with you if you said that our world is in the middle of a marriage crisis. In Australia, one in every three marriages ends in divorce. In America, it ...
I could have titled this article The amazing things that happen when a father says “sorry”, but having the courage to say sorry and exercise forgiveness will work for anyone: dad, mum, male or female. Some years ago, at my daughter’s engagement party, I had the honour of giving a short speech. Recently I wrote about the fact that “in families, change is the only constant”. What I didn’t tell you ...
When my beautiful and only daughter got married, I was reminded of the words of Enid Bagnold, “A father is always making his baby into a little woman, and when she is a woman he turns her back again.” At the time of my daughter’s marriage, I was sharing with a friend, another father who has two married daughters, my sadness and my joy about my baby’s impending marriage. His words ...
This week was an important week for one of my granddaughters. It was her seventh birthday. Her mum took her, and her sisters, horse-riding for a very exciting and fun-filled day. We got invited to the after-party, and it was of course gallons of fun. This granddaughter has 4 sisters, three older and one younger, so birthday parties are very social occasions and greatly valued. When we arrived at the after-party, ...
It was 7.30AM Saturday morning. I stumbled out of bed, on my way to the kitchen to get my breakfast cereal, and investigated the living room. There was my son, curled up on the lounge, trying to sleep with his 2-year-old son sitting on top of him and jumping up and down while watching TV. The scene was priceless. My son was trying to let his wife have an undisturbed sleep-in ...
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