When Your Kids Are at Their Worst, Be at Your Best
When your kids push your buttons, Dad, how do you respond? It starts with that inner attitude of respect, Dad. When they're at their worst, that's your moment to be at your best.
Don’t Leave Anyone Out: A Valentine’s Day Guide for Thoughtful Dads
Valentine’s Day isn’t just for romance. It’s a powerful opportunity for dads to intentionally affirm their daughters and sons, shaping their identity, security and understanding of love for years to come.
Dad: Make Sure Your Kids Feel the Love
Saying “I love you” and “I’m so proud of you” can be a tremendous blessing and a real benefit to our kids. That doesn’t mean it’s always easy or natural for us, but we can grow in that direction.
Tidal Pull
My heart lifts when I see my daughters cradled in healthy conversations with my parenting helpers.
The Benefits of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for Dads in a Dark Place
Replacing lies with truth in moments that incapacitate us, is the mental martial arts basis of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
How Reading to Your Child Affects Brain Development
One of my happiest childhood memories is snuggling in bed with mum or dad each night as they read to me. It was these moments that instilled in me a lifelong love of reading. It’s still one of my absolute favourite things to do, even though it’s a rare treat for me these days. What I didn’t realise back then was that this simple habit gave me so much more than ...
Christmas for My Daughters
Joe is a mate of mine. “Mate” hardly describes our connection, yet the sporadic contact belies a relationship that holds strong meaning for me. Joe is pretty much anonymous to most, but that is of his own making. He is humble at a time when indulgence and opulence seemed to be currency. For a long time, he struggled as an artisan. Other carpentry shops that ran slave labour gazumped the hand-crafted ...
Authentic Fatherhood Breeds Authentic Men
Fatherhood is to a son’s manhood, as manhood is to a dad’s fatherhood. They’re inseparable elements in the way fathers raise their sons to be men, because they reflect each other. A few points in a recent piece from All Pro Dad’s BJ Foster hit a six on the subject. Role Models Foster offered four ways to father their sons into manhood, introducing his argument with a simple: ‘Sons need their ...
Why Shared Activities Are Essential to the Dad-Daughter Bond
A majority of dads bond with their daughters through shared activities. Dad and daughter bonds are linked to what a 2013 Baylor University study called ‘closeness in the doing.’ “This is,” Baylor affirmed, “the masculine style of building closeness.” Mums tend to bond through the “feminine orientation of talking” -- an observation the study described as “closeness in dialogue.” Building Memories Leaning on experiential data, Baylor noted, “When asked what key ...
Keep It Simple – Making Happy Families
Research shows that there are some basic habits that combine to make a winning formula for families with successful, well-adjusted children who will flourish in life. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated,” are the wise words of Confucius. Albert Einstein said it this way: “Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler.” And one final word of wisdom from Steve Jobs is, “Simple ...
