If you choose a battle, Dad, prepare yourself to fight that battle and win that battle.
6 Tips to Connect With Your Teen Daughter
Download Tools for the Journey: 6 Tips to Connect With Your Teen Daughter from NCF now to get 6 great tips on how to keep the line of communication open between the two of you!
Don’t Be a Disney Dad
by Scott Moore What is a Disney Dad? A "Disney Parent" actually has a legal definition: "a noncustodial parent who indulges his or her child with gifts and good times during visitation and leaves most or all disciplinary responsibilities to the other parent." It's...
One Big Key to Effective Discipline—and How to Use It
With so many outside forces competing for our children’s attention and allegiance, training our kids has never been more important.
7 “Simple” Ways to Handle Conflict (and Prepare Kids for Life)
How well do you handle conflict, dad? When faced with tense situations, many guys withdraw or avoid confrontations. Some do the opposite—they lose control or explode, and do damage to those around them. You might not think about this a lot, but handling conflict is...
Dad, Don’t Let Rules Diminish the Relationship
Training and disciplining kids is tough. It’s even harder when you’re in a complex family situation, and more and more dads are finding themselves in that place. Our staff recently heard from several dads whose stories illustrate this (and whose names have been...
Family Challenges and Issues – Everybody Loves Raymond
Kids are defiant sometimes. It may take everything a dad has to handle it positively, without losing his cool.
Family Challenges and Issues – Cinderella Man
Kids have a lot to learn about life, and figuring out the best way to shape their character—including correction and discipline for their mistakes—is always a challenge.
Conflict Resolution – Fly Away Home
Resolving conflicts means telling the truth, admitting wrong, and seeking forgiveness as you try to move forward.
Help with Boundary Battles
Do you ever get into boundary battles with your kids? Maybe it’s just part of being a dad. Your kids see something and they want it ... but they really shouldn't have it. Or their friends are allowed to do things that you don’t think are appropriate for children at...
One Question that Can Help You Be a Better Dad
Our annual essay contest always brings out some amazing thoughts from kids. Sometimes the essays make you laugh out loud; sometimes they break your heart. And quite often you get a nugget or two about how to be a better dad. This week is about one of those: The essay...
Better Than a Promise
by Clark H Smith #Challenge: Dads, have you ever withdrawn privileges from your kids because of their bad behavior? Good dads know that discipline and even punishment is necessary to help shape our children’s character, but what’s the “big picture” in terms of...
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.
Dad, do you shirk discipline?
A few years back, a research study on parental discipline emerged from the Australian Institute of Family Studies, and here's the big headline for fathers: Dads are largely shirking discipline duties. "When it comes to disciplining the kids, there's been a role...
Treat Your Daughter Like Royalty
Insights Straight from Girls by Michelle Watson Canfield, PhD, LPC Dads, I'm here to give you an all-access pass behind the curtain of a girl’s heart from the vantage point of a few courageous girls who shared their thoughts. Romance and royalty. I wonder what it is...
Laugh with Them. Cry with Them.
by Jay Payleitner Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. - Romans 12:15 When our kids come to us with emotional news, why do we often reflect the opposite emotion back to them? I will never forget a brief conversation I had with my dad my...
5 Ways to Make a Difference for Your Son
According to recent research, boys in our country are "fragile." And this isn't a new idea. Similar things have been written for almost the past 30 years. When compared to girls, boys generally show much higher tendencies to struggle with issues such as: learning...
Single Fathers: Press On
by Matt Haviland Is it possible to be a great father as a single dad? The short answer is, “Absolutely!” However, since being a single parent brings a variety of outside factors and dynamics, we may have to take a slightly different approach. It will surely look...
4 Qualities of Growing Dads
Howard, who grew up without a dad, became a father in his teens and has struggled for years with the demands of raising five children, especially since he never had a male role model. Working two jobs, he was always too tired for his kids and made excuses instead of...
The Best Things to Say When Kids Are Competing
What’s the best way to handle ourselves at our kids’ sports events? Brad was frustrated by his son’s baseball schedule. After spring sign-ups, the family was notified the team would be starting “spring training” right away, and those pre-season skill-building sessions...
“Why is my father always angry?”
There’s a powerful fathering insight that some of us need to hear and take to heart, and it comes from our online search data. Quite a few people come to fathers.com using search terms like: “how do I deal with my angry dad”“why is my father always yelling at...
The Paradox of “No Guarantees”
As dads, there’s a truth we need to embrace—and the earlier in the fatherhood journey that we do it, the better: Our kids don’t come with guarantees. Some of the most powerful examples of this are found in the tragic episodes of violence that crop up in news feeds all...
Meeting Your Children’s Basic but Important Needs
For quite a few years, our staff at NCF had the privilege of interviewing dads as part of essay contests and Father’s Day celebrations around the country. Those interviews brought out the unique and often inspiring ways each man expressed his commitment to his...
A New School Year: 3 Tips for Dads
Your children just started school or are about to go back, and that should be a big deal in your mind—whether they’re starting kindergarten or the last year of graduate school. They will mature and be shaped in incredible ways during coming months, and of course you...
Intentional, Joy-Filled Fathering
When someone announces, “I’m going to be a dad!” it’s a reason to celebrate. When one father made that announcement, his wife quickly followed with a report on his recent surge of activity at home. Apparently his joy and anticipation inspired him to rearrange their...