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 ...

Anzac Day — what do I think about that? Well, firstly I’m grateful, grateful to soldiers who laid down their lives for me so that today I live in peace because of their selflessness, their courage, their daring. So I am grateful, and I spend the weekend carrying thoughts of those men in my heart. I wonder how many were fathers; I wonder how many families had to survive without a ...

Ian Grant, the author of Fathers Who Dare Win, is a world-recognised speaker and founder of New Zealand’s Parents Inc. He is and has been a ground-breaking pioneer in the International Men’s movement To give you further food for thought, I have reprinted below Ian Grant’s hard-hitting article called “Let’s Give Fatherhood a Better Name.” Like coming out of a painful nightmare, suddenly our society has woken up to how important ...

The team at Dads4Kids is so thankful to the three daring dads who featured in the Decorate Dad Challenge video. One of those amazing dads is Ashton Reed. Last Thursday, Ashton and his three beautiful children agreed to be featured in the TV story about why he took the Decorate Dad Challenge so seriously. To the joy of his children, they had the opportunity to decorate Dad all over again for ...

Robert Falzon, a good friend of mine in the men’s movement, asked me to contribute a chapter to his new book called Raising Fathers: Fathering from the Frontline — 12 Men’s Stories. Here is an excerpt from my contribution. It was a fine weather Sunday in this small resort town. The café was full of people having their lunch. No one seemed to recall seeing the young man with blonde hair ...

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 ...

“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 ...

Millions of Australian Dads will hear and see Dads4Kids‘ Best Daddy musical Community Service Advertisements over the next 12 months. They will be inspired to become who their children already think they are: ‘The Best Dad in the World’. Dads4Kids sees the whole year as a time to strengthen family relationships and encourage Dads, not only around Father’s Day. These CSAs will be seen on free to air TV over the ...

The team at Dads4Kids takes a deep interest in men’s health. Having worked closely with Professor John MacDonald in 2007, we were successful in getting a national Men’s Health Policy across the line in Federal Parliament. Furthermore, we include a complete session on men’s health in every Good to Great Fathering Course because a healthy father is much better than a dead father. Generally speaking, men can be their own worst ...

Richard Branson said, “If happiness is the goal – and it should be, then adventures should be top priority.” It is the priority of adventure that makes being out in the bush with a bunch of dads and their kids really exhilarating. Wollondilly River Station, the place for our annual Dads4kids Bush Camp, is set in a deep valley not too far from the famous Wombeyan Caves in the Southern Highlands ...

Counting Crows had a hit in 2002 with Joni Mitchell’s famous song Big Yellow Taxi. Good songs never get old. The line that stands out in the song for me is “all and all it seems to go, but you don’t know what you got till it’s gone”. Such was the case of a good friend of mine, Mick Robbins. We had only met a half a dozen times, but he ...

Mothers are important! Let’s face the facts. You cannot have a father without a mother. Dads4Kids was founded in 2002 with the main purpose to improve the well-being of children by increasing the proportion of children growing up with involved, responsible, committed and loving fathers. Whilst our main vision is to support fathers our broad vision has always been to empower families. A family is made up of a mother and ...

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 ...

Let me share with you the story of one of the best decisions I ever made for my family. Travelling around Australia was the dream of a lifetime. When you live out of your heart, you will never regret it.

It’s hard to hold back the tears when a man starts being really honest and speaking from his heart. This is especially the case when that same man has just finished the first Good to Great Course to be completed outside the Sydney-Wollongong region. It is even more exciting when that man tells you that his whole relationship with his wife and children has been revolutionised by completing the Dads4Kids Good ...

Life has its challenges, and being a father compounds those challenges.  Someone has got to be the leader in the family.  The buck has got to stop with someone. Herein lies the challenge. I believe that fathers are called to be leaders in love.  Being a leader requires making decisions on behalf of those you lead that are open to question.  It also requires that you are prepared to take the ...

We recently moved house. The house we had been renting for 13 years was sold, and there was no other option. According to the USA Employee Relations Council, moving house is the third most stressful event in life, following death and divorce. Other lists put it lower, but whatever the case, it usually makes the top ten of life’s worst events. Moving house is stressful because you have to make decisions ...

Last week I got a phone call from Mary-Louise Fowler, the coordinator of the World Congress of Families VII (WCF). She said with a worried voice, “We are in danger of losing some of our best speakers!” “Why?” I asked. Mary-Louise replied, “Homosexual activists are attacking the World Congress of Families because many of the speakers believe that children deserve a mother and a father and that marriage between a man and a woman is the best ...

Thank GOD we have DIDS in this country. 5 males a day, every day, suicide in this country. In Canada, it’s 9 a day. We are establishing links to start DIDS over there. ~~~ Andrew T. Renouf committed suicide on or about October 17, 1995, because he had 100% of his wages taken by the Family Responsibility Office, an agency of the Government of Ontario, Canada. He asked for assistance for ...

Below are just a few of the emails that I have been swamped with since sending out the notice of public hearings for Wednesday and Thursday, today. Many are from women. ALL are of disgust. Where is the representation from men’s groups, you ask? Easy — they obviously didn’t want you there. DIDS received this notice today, and it was forwarded from a friend, not from the Attorney-General’s Department. The hearings ...