Editor’s Note: This great article by Josephine Agostino from Kidspot, hosted by News.com.au, is reprinted here as a service to the many single parents who are robbed of their children and their rights as parents. ___ “The only pictures I’ve seen of my kids in that time are on their school reports… I don’t even know where they live. Sadly, I am resigned to the fact I will never have a ...

I was asked to share some of my experiences of being a dad. The only reason that I am doing so is that I was the first to say “yes” to the invitation. Your story is as unique as mine. Your tales of being a dad are equally special. Your own feelings about being a proud dad are as genuine as mine and your dad jokes are likely to be just ...

Editor’s Note: We had a chat with Leith Erickson, founder of the Australian Brotherhood of Fathers, this week and offered to help bring awareness to some of their exciting projects, to support the cause of single fathers. Please find below a thrilling project we believe worthy of your consideration. ___ Photographer Stephen Walton of Sydney has been following the suicide awareness campaign #21fathers since its release. Failing System Stephen contacted the ...

Here are some excellent Australian support groups for men going through the painful process of divorce. No man is an island. By supporting single dads, we also support their children, their new romantic partners and other family members. We all need friends. Robert Louis Stevenson said, “No man is useless while he has a friend”. Sadly, many men feel bereft of friends, especially if they are single dads going through a ...

Just because some people have the privilege of being raised in a happy, well-adjusted and prosperous family, doesn’t mean we should make everyone equally miserable. It never ceases to amaze me the crazy ideas that some people come up with. You really have to ask whether some people actually stop and think about the implications of what they are saying. This ABC article is a case in point. The headline was: ...

I know this bloke: he is an old fella, but a single dad. He has been through the mill before; the ‘family court mill’, I mean. Anyway, he now has a 9-year-old little girl who is living with him. She is a beautiful, vibrant, loving, caring little girl. He has no court orders, hasn’t been to the courts, hasn’t applied, just has an agreement with his wife, and the child is ...

“Can you help me?” These were the words I first heard when I picked up the phone. “I can’t see my kids and I don’t know what to do. I feel like giving up and I am thinking about killing myself to shut off the pain.” The matter-of-fact way he said these words told me that this was no veiled threat, but a carefully considered option. Men don’t usually tell you ...

It’s Friday night and I have just come home from the fish-and-chip shop up the road. I went up earlier with my 9-year-old daughter Angel. While we were waiting for our order — chips and gravy — she was telling me with much conviction that if you spit chewing gum onto the footpath, some people will come along and pick it up, and because it has your tooth-prints in the gum, ...

Dads in Distress hold weekly meetings to enable fathers who are affected by relationship and custody issues to come together in an atmosphere geared toward practical support, progress and healing. We don’t denigrate woman at our meetings, in fact we encourage men to look in the mirror to understand what part of the blame they own, if any. We simply guide men to become the cause of their future and not ...

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 ...

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 ...

Dads4Kids often gets heartbreaking calls from single dads who have been shut out of their children’s lives in the process of family breakup. We have advocated at a parliamentary level for a fair go for single dads who can’t see their kids. Sadly, the changes to the system have been wound back. The legal bias and the complex problems single fathers face as a result are beyond human understanding. Sadly, we ...

This week Dads4Kids launches its annual end-of-financial-year Help the Children Appeal. One great reason to give to the Help the Children Appeal is because Dads4Kids is helping dads live longer than in years gone by. Last year, on 1 November 2019, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released an important news item. The ABS reported: “Life expectancy at birth is greater for Australian females than males, however male life expectancy is ...

There is a war on men but the greatest perpetrators are the men themselves. As Walt Kelly once said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Our single greatest enemy is our own passivity – mine included. Daily, I make the decision as Robert Lewis says, to “reject passivity.” That is why you are getting this newsletter. The number one objection women have about husbands is their passivity. I ...

Well-known UK commentator Peter Hitchens in an article called ‘So Much for Father’s Day’ said, “By the end of his or her childhood, a British boy or girl is much more likely to have a TV set in the bedroom than a father at home. Our 45 year war against traditional family life has been so successful that almost 50% of 15 year olds no longer live with both their parents.” ...

‘Equality for Men’ is a new book by Glen Poole, fatherhood campaigner from Great Britain. Glen Poole worked very closely with Matt O’Connor of Fathers4Justice. More than any other group in the world, Fathers4Justice put issues surrounding single fathers, unjust family law courts and fatherless children on the worldwide map. Who can forget Jason Hatch climbing the walls of Buckingham Palace with his banner, ‘Super Dads of Fathers 4 Justice’? Billions ...

It is International Men’s Day on Tuesday 19 November. See the promo video and for a laugh check out this funny video put together a few years ago. Celebrate this day in whatever way you can. The theme this year is “Keeping Men and Boys Safe” and the five challenges are: Tackling male suicide Keeping men and boys safe to allow them to become tomorrow’s role models End tolerance of violence towards ...

You may wonder why I am so committed to encouraging you to be the best father you can be for your children.  I could say that it’s the mountains of sociological studies that show a direct link between fatherlessness and dozens of social problems.  Sociologists from all over the globe, through empirical studies, link increased rates of crime, health problems, suicide, child abuse, sexual violence, drug abuse, mental health and lower ...

Could you please, please get this story out there! We desperately need to stop this from happening again. This is the second time in the same court. Now two kids don’t have a dad; a mum, dad and family are left grieving. Just weeks ago, a 16-year-old young girl, devastated by her parents’ divorce, suicided in her old family home. The author is our DIDS solicitor. Contact details are below. This ...

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 ...