When it comes to mental health, prevention is always better than cure. Here are ten natural ways to defeat depression. Even if you don’t suffer from depression, you will improve your life by implementing these ten simple strategies. C.S. Lewis wrote that “Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also harder to bear”. I want to share with you the following practical tips to ...

My wife went through pregnancy hell. And so did I, though my issues only surfaced years later. To all the dads out there: pregnancy may be tough for you too, and that’s okay. If I made it, so will you. I remember the apprehension and nerves when my first child was born. She was on time, and her arrival – and our time in the hospital – was much faster than ...

The celebration of International Men’s Day is saving men’s lives by the tens of thousands every year that it is celebrated. Read about some of the awesome events that took place this year. International Men’s Day is exploding around the world. So firstly, thank you for your support for Internationals Men’s Day and Dads4Kids. Without your help, we could not have put International Men’s Day (IMD) on the global stage. A ...

Health-hindering lockdowns are by no means fun. The routine COVID-19 “stay home” decrees were agreeably necessary when little was known about the virus. 19 months on, government decrees are less about preserving health, and more about governments serving themselves. There’s little doubt that keeping people scared, helps an increasingly militant bureaucracy keep emergency powers firmly in their hands. It’s with this in mind that I’m reluctant to give out ideas for ...

Margin is a term entrenched in the financial world. Margin trading. Stock margin. Profit margin — the examples are vast. In situ, it means the sum total between a ‘product or service’s selling price and the cost of production’. In practice, margin is a buffer.   In other words, margin is whatever fills the gap between success and ruin. Margin is what’s left over after both variable and invariable costs have been ...

One of my most favourite things of all time is when one or both of our boys have a day out with dad. Partly because it means I get a day out with myself that usually consists chocolate, girly movies and/or pampering, but also because I notice a distinct difference in my boys every time they return. As if they’ve grown up a little bit, and for the next few days, ...

How close are you to burning out? Could you recognise the signs? What will the consequences be if you did burn out? In episode 44 of Real Talk 4 Real Men, Guy and Chris unpack how you can guard against burnout. As I sat on the last train of the night home from another exhausting and stressful day at the office, my brain continued to race as I reflected on the ...

“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, ...

Do you struggle with behaviours that you can’t change, and can’t understand where they come from? Or perhaps you still harbour guilt and shame, or blame yourself for not having a father in your life? The impacts of being fatherless at some key point in our lives can have devastating consequences that we might not even be aware of. Listen to Jack Thurston’s story and his proven solutions to the impacts ...

Rod Lampard, father of five, says in a recent article in the Daily Dad, “Technology is a tool, not a toy. It’s a horrible baby-sitter. A terrible master. Tech is no substitute for hands-on, old-school dad and mum counsel, comfort and conviction.” That sums up my feelings exactly. For many years of my younger life, we did not have a TV in the house. Looking back, it was a good thing. ...

My good friend Robert Day sent me a link. He said, “Check out Gavin Topps and his ‘Fight Like a Pro’ Program”. Rob is a Dads4Kids board member. He has worked with men all his life. He knows men. So, I just had to check it out for myself. Below is the challenging call to Manhood from the Gavin Topps Rite of Passage for the Modern Man landing page. “Friend, if ...

Thanks so much for all the wonderful help with the End of Financial Year ‘Help the Children’ Appeal. Your giving will help Dads4Kids to keep going. The good news is, we are just over halfway to our target. I am sure we will get there in the end, but it just might take a bit more time. If you would still like to support the Dads4Kids Help Children Appeal, please DONATE ...

As the cold weather sets in, it’s vital to give your mind and body a boost to improve overall mood and wellbeing. 1. Centre in on your diet. Fill your plate with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables to give your body adequate nutrition and vitamins to increase energy levels throughout the winter months. A nutritious diet, along with drinking plenty of water, will ensure your immune system stays strong to help ...

Change is stressful, so we all need tips on how to deal with change. Real Talk 4 Real Men episode 56. Change brings on stress, and so in part 3 of Thrive Through Change, we dedicate an entire episode on how to deal with stress. We all know that when negative things are going on in our lives, it causes stress. Things like a relationship breakup, a job redundancy, a health ...

You might remember the fantastic Prager University “Make Men Masculine Again” video that we featured in our weekly Dads4Kids newsletter in 2018. It now has over 10 million views. Recently, Dennis Prager from Prager University put out a powerful video called “Are Fathers Necessary?”  Sadly, it will most likely be shadow-banned by Facebook and YouTube, as was the “Make Men Masculine” video. George Orwell was right to say, “There are some ...

Mahatma Gandhi said, “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Eric Barker, it would seem, has been inspired by Gandhi’s wisdom in his science-based article called, “How to Raise Happy Kids: 10 Steps Backed by Science.”  Eric Barker is the creator of the blog Barking Up the Wrong Tree, and the book of the same name, which presents science-based answers and expert ...

Yesterday I heard a disturbing story. My friend rang me to share how his son had recently gone through a very sad divorce. He shared with his Dad how the unreality of the digital world, that many young people live in today, was a major contributor to his divorce and his general lack of wellbeing. My friend’s son pointed out that after a while, for the inhabitant of the digital world, ...

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 ...

When all hope is lost and you are at the end of your rope, whom do you call? Until recently, you could call Eric Trezise (1930-2021), friend of the friendless and hope for the hopeless. Sadly, Eric passed from this life to the next recently, at 91 years of age. I first met Eric Trezise at the Dads4Kids Fatherhood Forum in Parliament House, Canberra in 2005. Tony Miller, founder of Dads ...