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 ...

This article is taken from newsletter Number 929. That means that every week since Father’s Day, September 2002, Dads4Kids has sent a newsletter out for 929 weeks in a row to encourage you and all our many readers to be the best dad possible for your children. The goal of Dads4Kids is to equip you, resource you, and challenge you to accept excellence in fathering as the norm, not the exception. ...

We need women. That’s a line that all men can agree on, but not always for the right reasons. Feminism only gained ground in the 1890’s when men became vocal supporters of a woman’s right to vote. In those days, in a court of law, a woman did not have the same rights as a man. Thankfully, this has changed, but as always, the pendulum has swung too far. Now, in ...

Father-daughter duo Mat and Savanna Shaw performed a version of The Prayer on their YouTube channel two months ago, and they could never have imagined what happened next. The musical family went totally viral, earning almost 6 million views on their video. They were both stuck at home because of the coronavirus, and they decided to use their talents to encourage people in the midst of the crisis.   My background ...

We celebrate Mothers next Sunday, 10 May 2020, but do we really celebrate motherhood all year round? Sadly, the reverse is the case. Mothering is regularly maligned and belittled in mainstream media. Oftentimes, mothers are mocked for their sacrificial devotion to their families. If you think I am exaggerating, read this relatively recent article by Dianne Anders titled: “Aussie wife slammed by Today Show hosts for loving family epic response”. Brooke ...

“It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” So wrote Charles Dickens. This could be a description of the current effects of the global pandemic! The coronavirus world lockdown is forcing us together in the most unusual ways. Great pressure produces diamonds! Great pressure can also often produce creative comical genius. Such is the case with the viral video “Family Lockdown Boogie”.   Jack Buchannan and his ...

Some time ago, a young father sent me this incredible story about David Campbell. David is the son of the iconic Aussie singer Jimmy Barnes. David Campbell happens to be a singer himself, and a co-host on the ‘Today Extra’ show on Channel Nine. Read the full story here. Watch the performance below, of a father and son capturing the raw emotion of this story. If you don’t know anything about ...

If you are a Dad, it is hard not to feel a bit overwhelmed at the present moment. The coronavirus news seems to beat down at us from every quarter. Our children and our wives are looking to us for leadership in the midst of our current situation. What is our response to them? Firstly, we need to keep the saw sharp. Who is the saw in this analogy? You are the ...

The coronavirus pandemic really hit home to me when a close friend of mine here in Australia lost his friend and business partner to the virus earlier this week. The father of two left behind two young children and his wife. Thankfully, neither his wife or two children were infected with the virus, nor his two employees. This beautiful family lived in a south-east Asian country only a short distance from ...

Many years ago, I was awoken by the incessant ringing of my wife’s mobile phone. It was 12.30 am, so we knew something was wrong. The message was frightening. Steve Stylianou, a good friend and father of three, had collapsed with a suspected heart attack and was rushed to hospital. The request was simple – just pray! We mumbled our prayers as you do when you have been woken from a ...

What is Dad to do in the middle of a coronavirus epidemic? Firstly, he has to try to analyse the problem and gather information to protect his family, and particularly his children. A great man once said, “The truth will set you free.” What exactly is the Coronavirus? Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle ...

If you haven’t heard about Bluey, you have been “living under a rock” as Paul Keating used to say. The cartoon blue heeler that Australia has already fallen in love with is now going out to a global audience, thanks to a distribution deal between the BBC and Disney. “The warmth and authenticity of Bluey’s family dynamic is what first captured our interest in the show,” said Jane Gould, senior vice ...

We all have to move forward. The good news is that Dads4Kids is on the move. Earlier this year, Paul Lassig joined our team as the Dads4Kids Development Manager to take Dads4Kids forward. If we stop moving forward, we get stuck in the past, atrophy and die. It is the same for you and me as fathers. We have to keep challenging ourselves to get better, be more honest, and develop ...

Two weeks ago we celebrated Valentine’s Day, and by way of celebration I looked up an older article from Time Magazine called ‘The Science of Romance’. I looked up Susan Sprecker’s ‘Passionate Love Scale‘ featured in Time Magazine and ran the test on myself. After 44 years of marriage, I rated as ‘passionate, but less intense’. My wife tells me she scored ‘wildly, even recklessly in love’. I am working hard ...

Some time ago, Steve De Keijzer told me a humbling but wonderful experience he had with his 16-year-old daughter. Steve’s daughter had an assignment from school to write a story on a person who had a profound impact on her life. She chose to write about her dad. Steve’s story is printed in full below: “My 16 year-old daughter came home recently and told me of an assignment that she had ...

A man once said to me, “I told my wife I loved her once, why do I have to tell her again?” Maybe that foolhardy statement is one of the reasons many men get irked by Valentine’s Day. I was one of them. Men are headliners, while women are fine print people.  Men say, “Just give me the facts.” Once we have those facts, we don’t like going over old ground. ...

Some time ago, a young man approached me to see if I would mentor him and his wife on how to raise a great family. I have known this man and his wife for about ten years. He is a very successful businessman who is also active in his local church. In my estimation, he is a great father and a devoted husband. As a matter of fact, I would give ...

Some time ago, I attended a seminar where I was handed a little cellophane bag tied with a blue ribbon, full of unusual goodies with a tag titled ‘Leadership Survival Kit”. I had never received a Leadership Survival Kit before, so I picked it up to have a good look. I like to think of myself as a leader, but more importantly, I want to survive. As a father with five ...

Sometimes you get a treasured text from your child that signifies a milestone in your relationship, or just a job well done. I remember in 2004, when we ran our first Dads and Kids Bush Camp at Wollondilly River, my daughter was 11 years old at the time. She graciously agreed to come away camping with a group of dads and kids for a ‘fun’ weekend away. She brought along a ...

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 ...