The young boy said in awed tones, “Is it a bird? Is it a plane?… No, it’s my father”. There are numerous types of fathers and dad jokes to suit them. Check out some of my favourites! The Sporty Dad: Seems to be always in gym clothes. Has a bright cheery attitude every day. A can-do attitude. Why did the scarecrow win an award? A. Because he was outstanding in his ...

Can you be overly protective of your wife and kids? How do you walk the balance between care and responsibility? That is the topic of Real Talk 4 Real Men episode #27. Are you confident that you are preparing your young adults well for handling the responsibilities that come with adulthood? Have you prepared your wife to be able to live well without you, should you suddenly be taken off this ...

Video games can be great bond-builders. With the demise of couch co-op, options for split-screen adventures are few and far between. Computer games are not the community-building tool they once were. Companies like DICE, EA and even Mojang followed the Silicon Valley maximum profit trend by limiting customisable consumer options. Buy an Apple product, for example, and they lock you into paying for their expensive branded accessories. Console-makers, game developers and ...

Are you living in the now, or in the glory days of your memory? With life moving ever faster, the cost is high if we fail to keep up. This is a challenging podcast (#47 Real Talk for Real Men). There was a time when you could build your life around a single career, even a single employer. Work hard and you had a job for life and a secure retirement.  ...

What are the life skills that you need through life’s journey? Guy & Chris reflect on this in episode #58. As you are journeying through life, are you continuing to build the life skills that underpin your growing maturity and success through life, or will you revel in being both ignorant and arrogant? Life Skills for Life’s Journey In episode 58 of Real Talk for Real Men, Chris and Guy encourage ...

Today, Chris and Guy answer the question: what is really involved in being a father in a child’s world? Episode #31 of Real Talk 4 Real Men. When you became a daddy, did you think that being a father was something just so natural, you didn’t really need to think very much about it? That was Chris’ experience more than four decades ago, but he had to learn the hard way ...

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 ...

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 ...

It was 7.30AM Saturday morning. I stumbled out of bed, on my way to the kitchen to get my breakfast cereal, and investigated the living room. There was my son, curled up on the lounge, trying to sleep with his 2-year-old son sitting on top of him and jumping up and down while watching TV. The scene was priceless. My son was trying to let his wife have an undisturbed sleep-in ...

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 ...

Only a few days ago, I got a call from the eldest daughter of a dear friend telling me that her Dad had passed way from a heart attack. Ian was at his work, and without any apparent warning, he collapsed and died. He was comparatively young and in good health. After the phone call, I was in a state of shock. We didn’t see each other a lot but we ...

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 ...

I know many men who feel uncomfortable with the attention that they get on Father’s Day. I guess for many years as a father, I was one of those. I was very hesitant to celebrate Father’s Day. Many years ago I had the same negative attitude to Christmas Day, because of all the crass commercialism. I changed, you can too. As a man once said, “When you eat the chicken, make ...