Like a Marine, a dad is the first vanguard in their child’s life. Dads are a child’s first superhero. This is why the world needs men who refuse — come hell or high water —  to go out on the devil’s terms. Put simply, the world needs resilient dads. Dads who bounce back from life’s roundhouse kicks, saying with the best of them: “Semper Fi.” Fathers who choose to remain always ...

Gordon Dalbey is a well-known writer and leader in the men’s movement. Dalbey is not travelling as much as he used to, but his legacy of wisdom lives on. His first book, Healing the Masculine Soul, released in 1988, became a classic in the worldwide men’s movement, much like the poet Robert Bly’s ground-breaking book Iron John, which was released two years later in 1990. Some time ago, a good friend encouraged me ...

Outta Puff Daddys (OPD) is a mixed bag of over-40s men from Brighton in the United Kingdom dancing to bridge the gap between masculinity and good mental health. It’s cringe for a good cause. Together as a group since 2012, they started life as a one-off way to encourage their kids. The “Boy Band” now uses dance routines, while capitalising on the comedy of dads on a dancefloor, to stem the ...

2018 was a breakthrough year for me. The preceding few years had been particularly difficult, thanks to some bad decisions on my part, both in business and in my relationships. Looking back, I had fallen into passivity and failed to see the warning signs around me. Even when I was paying attention, I was slow to take action, and came close to losing my marriage and everything I had worked for. ...

“A real man is one who: rejects passivity, accepts responsibility, leads courageously and accepts the greater reward.” These are the wise words of Robert Lewis, author of Raising a Modern-Day Knight. These were the words I quoted when I spoke at a Men’s Breakfast at Living Grace in Liverpool, Sydney and also in Berry, on the past two Saturday mornings. I asked the men to share the deepest part of their ...

by Rachael Ward New dad Matt Carter knew something wasn’t quite right when he suddenly became overwhelmed with sadness as soon as his two babies started crying. From there it just snowballed. He experienced several breakdowns before finally telling a maternal and child health nurse he was struggling. The now father of three was eventually diagnosed with postnatal depression, a condition he didn’t even know could impact men, as it is ...

by Dan Hart As the US celebrated Father’s Day recently, two recent studies confirm that fathers play a central role in the mental health and behaviour of their children. In a report that compared dozens of studies conducted between 1987 and 2022, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) found “clear correlations between children raised in fatherless homes and developmental challenges ranging from bad grades, anxiety, and suicide to violent behaviour, drug ...

Larry Stockstill is a world-recognised multi-talented leadership coach, with over twelve books to his credit. He has six children, five sons and a daughter, and fifteen grandchildren, and he lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Larry Stockstill is passionate about encouraging fathers and families, and he writes on integrity, purity, example, pace, purpose, marriage, children, and legacy. He believes in modelling his message and helping leaders develop “from integrity to legacy.” Father’s ...

Welcome to the marriage before carriage dads matter revolution! This was the brilliant bottom line in a series of posts written by Delano Squires this week. Marking USA’s Father’s Day, the dad of four and Heritage Foundation Fellow declared, “There’s no greater vocation than being a dad.” Dependency, power, plunder, and control are reasons why they don’t want men to be men. “There are a lot of people who want men ...

A number of years ago, I spent five round-the-world trips on a lawyer to represent my case to be a present dad in my children’s growing up. I could sensibly calculate that separation would force the divvying up of my children’s time between parents, but I was determined to protect as much of it as I could, because I believe my children and I need time to maintain our strong, wholehearted ...

It was Christmas Day 2008, a significant milestone for my wife Jodi and me. Earlier that year, we had been thrown into the proverbial deep end as first-time parents of beautiful twin daughters, so this would be a Christmas like no other. The decorations were divine, we had food with all the trimmings, and the precious presents were beautifully wrapped (by my wife, of course) all ready to go. It was ...

Thanks to a group of West Australian dads, Currambine Primary School is now host to a unique library. Painted red, and watertight, the renovated Telstra phone booth is an outdoor add-on to the school’s existing book-borrowing service. The dads from LADDs birthed the idea. Loving and Devoted Dads are an offshoot of father engagement, The Father Project. LADDs exists to ‘improve child development by inspiring dads to engage with their kids.’ ...

Channing Tatum might be a lot of things on screen. Off-screen he’s a single dad, and the best-selling author of three children’s books. All three kids’ books were inspired by Tatum’s relationship with his own daughter, Everly. Central to the storyline is Ella (aka Sparkella), who, with the help of her dad, learns the value of acts like how to combat peer pressure, having patience, and telling the truth. Life Lessons ...

“We may have found a cure for most evils; but we have found no remedy for the worst of them all, the apathy of human beings.” Fighting Against Apathy The above quote is from Helen Keller, making it all the more pertinent. Helen Keller was both deaf and blind but somehow broke through her massive impediments in communication. Helen Keller was the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor ...

Ron DeSantis doubling down on his fatherhood initiative gives further life to Florida’s fight for fathers. Speaking to a pro-life group on Saturday, the governor recommitted to the pro-dad program aimed at ending the fatherless epidemic. Dubbed House Bill 7065, 2022, the Responsible Fatherhood Initiative was unanimously signed into law last May. One year on and DeSantis is adamant that help for dads is hope for their kids.   If dad ...

Once upon a not-so-long-ago-time, I wasn’t a single dad. I was just a dad. Well, not “just”. For a just-starting-out dad, I had set some parenting goals. I quite deliberately set out to be anything but “just a dad.” I had a profound sense of parenting purpose. I was pounding with pride at the prospect of crafting a wonderful little person and was underway with nurturing and nursing my – our ...

Learning from conflict will make any dad a better one. “A joyful heart is good medicine”, wrote Solomon, “but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” (Prov 17:22). In his context, Solomon understood ‘joyful’ to mean delight, celebration, a form of cheerfulness, the shining of something bright. There’s a reason he speaks of joy and being crushed with a slight pause between two breaths. A joyful heart and a crushed spirit ...

For Hollywood dad, Kirk Cameron, modelling manhood is dad-life proper. Get past the Americana exterior, and the former atheist’s down-to-earth grasp of back-to-basics parenting has gravitas. Known for his role as Mike Seaver in the seven-season sitcom, Growing Pains, Cameron is also a father of six. Four of whom he and his wife of 31 years adopted not long after getting married. Two of whom, arrived later on. He recently shared ...

Recently I caught a Diamond Python on my daily prayer walk in the rainforest at Mt Kembla, near where I live in Wollongong, Australia. Someone asked me, “Why did you catch it?” That is a good question. If the truth is to be known, I cannot help myself. I love snakes. Think of it as an unusual addiction. It is part of our Marsh family heritage. It must be embedded in ...