Aware fathers are on a quest to observe and be positively connected to many facets of our children’s lives. There are huge benefits for them and for us.
Connecting Through Fashion: Understanding Your Daughter’s Unique Style
Dr. Michelle Watson Canfield: Your daughter’s style expresses who she is, and a wise dad enters in and seeks to understand that part of her.
Winning and Losing in Father-Child Contests
Should we let our kids when we’re competing against them? It can be difficult for a dad. And it might require an attitude adjustment.
Fatherhood and the Waiting Game
Waiting on our kids isn’t fun. But being there shows them over and over that they are worth our time, effort, patience, and perseverance.
Each Child Is Different! 3 Important Truths for Dads
Each of our kids will have a unique (and maybe surprising) perspective on our fathering and our family life. 3 thoughts to keep in mind …
Important Father-Child Interviews
A big part of fathering is getting to know your child better and growing your relationship. One key strategy is simple, but often overlooked.
3 Ways to Better Know Your Children (and Avoid Some Surprises)
Healthy awareness of our kids helps us bond with them, encourage them, teach them, and much more. It informs all our other fathering actions.
Laugh with Them. Cry with Them.
by Jay Payleitner: When a child reveals a clear emotion, reflect their demeanor back to them. Celebrate with them in their joy or join them in their sorrow.
Effective Fathering for a New Generation
Dr. Ken looks at his research-based 7 Secrets of Effective Fathers and how they have changed through the years.
Can You Answer These Questions About Your Child?
These questions provide a good marker for how aware you are of your child and his world, which helps with many areas of fathering.
7 Life Lessons One Dad Learned From His Kids
by Joshua Becker: Children add joy, purpose, and fulfillment to our lives. And given the chance, they will teach us valuable life lessons.
Stretch to Connect with Your Child
It’s almost a guarantee that we’ll have to stretch a bit—or maybe even take some risks—to connect with our kids and become better dads.
Categories
Welcome to the fathers.com fathering library.
On the left you will see how our blogs and articles are categorized. Choose your stage in the fathering journey under Your Kids, click on a specific situation that applies to you, or browse through the items in our hot topics and fathering fundamentals. Also, check out Tools for the Journey – short downloadable pieces with tips for specific challenges.
Fathering is a Marathon: Embrace the Journey
by Ken Canfield, Ph.D. Dad, while you’re in the middle of dashing around as a busy dad, I want to provide some perspective and an important reminder: Fathering is a marathon. Being a good dad is a distance run. It’s a long, trying journey and we must be disciplined if...
Beyond Conditional Love: Rethinking Expectations
When it comes to your kids, dad, What do you expect? We’ve often heard comments like these from grown sons and daughters: “My brother was an all-state quarterback, but I played tennis, and I never quite measured up for my dad.” “I made a B average in school, but Daddy...
Valentine’s Day Tips for Dads of Daughters – and Sons
Your Valentine’s Day shopping and planning for your wife is surely well under way, if not complete—and that’s good! Some may view this "holiday" as just another excuse for greeting card and flower companies to make money—as well as jewelry, candy and clothing...
Entering Your Child’s World: 5 Areas for Dads to Stay Connected
Dad, are you really plugged into what’s going on in your children’s lives? Do you have a good handle on what happens in their typical day, who is influencing them, and how they are processing the things they see and hear? In today’s world these can be unsettling...
Self-Disciplined Kids & the Power of Saying “No”
by Dr. Ken Canfield Dad, are you instilling in your children a strong “internal locus of control”? You’re probably thinking, What does that mean? And I get it. It’s a term that I’ve come across as a researcher from time to time through the years. Some years ago, one...
Everyday Heroes: Dads Have Superpowers!
by Donald Calkins That’s right, dad. Your children believe the world revolves around you; they see you as holding the universe in your hands. While that may be exaggerated, the truth is that most dads have extraordinary influence over their children. I remember going...
Make Every Day Count: A New Year of Fathering
Dad, what will it take to make this year the best ever for you and your kids? The media has a New Year tradition of remembering well-known people who died during the past year. A few years back, one of those people was a man who really seemed to “get it” as a father,...
16 Ideas for Father-Child Holiday Traditions
by Michelle Watson Canfield, PhD, LPC One December back in the late 60s, a father-daughter tradition began. One afternoon, my father drove my younger sister and me—seven and five at the time—two hours away in our turquoise station wagon to cut down our family...
Single Dads: Will it Really be OK this Holiday Season?
by Matt Haviland If the holiday season ushers in an assortment of emotions to most people, that’s even more true for single dads this time of year. Joy, laughter, and anticipation may be at the forefront. What about dread, anxiety, or doubt? “Yes” to all of the above,...
Ways to Give Meaningful Gifts to Your Kids
How do you decide what gifts to give your children this time of year? Maybe your family has settled into an annual routine that seems to work pretty well. Maybe the kids create lists to help you know what they want. Maybe most of the gifts have already been bought...
From Duty to Delight: Transforming Your Fatherhood
What’s the secret ingredient of good fathering? And maybe more importantly for many dads: What can you do if you never saw that kind of father as you grew up? Jeff is a committed dad who has a great perspective on fathering. He’s passionate about being the dad his two...
Time: Are You Spending or Investing?
by Ron Nichols There’s a common expression that we use all the time. It’s pretty harmless in itself, but as fathers we need to think differently with it. It’s the simple concept of spending time. We always say, “I spent a lot of time on that project,” or, “I spent 20...