Byrd Bagget says, “Work hard, do your best, live the truth, trust yourself, have some fun… and you will have no regrets.” Only twelve more sleeps till Christmas. All the more reason to live life with no regrets. Warwick, why are you talking about no regrets, twelve days out from Christmas? I thought you would never ask! Recently, my wife and I were invited to speak together at a church by ...

My friend Tony Miller used to say to me: “We are not human doings — we are human beings.” Timely words for us in the Christmas/New Year season. We all need time off just to learn ‘how to be again’. It is amazing how quickly we can forget the need to have some Holy-days. Days for rest, days to have fun and days just to do nothing. Dr Mike’s Seven Benefits ...

Several years ago, Australia spent more on Christmas per capita than any other nation. The Americans are beating us this year, but we are still right up there. The average household in Australia will spend $969 each this Christmas, based on all expenses including gifts, food and decorations. That is a grand total of 18.8 billion dollars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTn-mkLhLAM   And what about the fact that ‘Carols by Candlelight’ celebrations are held ...

To our children, Christmas is one of those special times of the year. When I was growing up it was the best time of the year and was always a long time coming. New Year was always an anticlimax, despite my Scottish heritage and the importance of Hogmanay in that country. When I was 6 years old, we lived with our mum and grandmother in Edinburgh, Scotland. Christmases were cold and ...

The cinema was packed, but we just had to see ‘The Last Jedi’ for ourselves. We were so fixated we took the last two seats in the front row.  The anticipation was building as the text scrolled across the star filled universe. In a galaxy far, far away, a story was about to unfold that has captured the hearts and wallets of people of the known world. Fortune Magazine said, “Star ...

Charles Dickens’ words could well apply to Christmas for many people here in Australia.  “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…  it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness.” From my point of view Christmas is one of the best times of the year. Christmas is a time for family. Christmas is a time to be happy. Christmas is a time to ...

Christmas is a great time of the year for our families and particularly for our children. I remember as a ten year old boy, the year seemed to last forever before Christmas arrived. The lead up to Christmas went excruciatingly slow. Psychologists acknowledge that time does go quicker as you age. For me, the big marker of the year was Christmas, not New Year’s Day. Everything revolved around Christmas. John Lennon ...

It’s that time of year again.  You can go to the shopping mall and listen to carols while you shop. You can even get your photo taken with Santa.  Christmas can be a very difficult time of the year for single fathers or for children who can’t see their mothers or fathers. Mostly it’s the children who can’t see their dads who find it the hardest because of the innate bias ...

If you are like me, you care about Australia and you would like to do something to make things better, not only for your children but for the community as a whole. The reality is that in many ways we are more connected than we have ever been through social media, but less connected at a human level. As Jay Bayer points out so well in his article, ‘Social media, Pretend ...

As Christmas is once again upon us, I would like to share a story that I guess explains what Dads in Distress is all about. It happened a few years ago in the very early days of forming DIDS, and certainly inspired me to continue the work. I was sitting in a  DIDS meeting sharing my story. It was early days into separation, then divorce. It was coming up to Christmas, ...

The Attorney General has released a discussion paper on Family Law Reform. Take the time, read it and put a submission in to: www.ag.gov.au Think about parallel parenting. Why can’t it work here? We are coming up to Christmas. Many dads won’t be seeing their kids for Christmas — someone else may be handing out their presents from under the tree this year. While you are having Christmas dinner or while you ...

All going well, I will receive access to my children sometime on Christmas Day. I don’t know whether for 1 hour, 1 day or 1 week. I have no court orders, choosing not to put my kids through it, and knowing by experience they are not worth the paper they are written on. There are many more like me. Most don’t get to see their kids over Christmas at all. I ...