Find ways to represent the best of fatherhood where you are, no matter what you end up doing on Father’s Day.
Rudy’s Legacy: 25 Ways to Live Out Healthy Manhood
How do you live a life that leaves a legacy? First and foremost, you need to live according to your beliefs—healthy beliefs that encompass your faith, your family, and your friends.
4 Ways Dads Can Help Hurting Kids
Sometimes life leaves emotional scars on children. How can we dads help them most effectively? A stepdad named Eric wrote to us about this. He said that the greatest difficulty he has faced with his children has been dealing with the hurt they brought with them from...
Moral and Spiritual Guidance – Secondhand Lions
What do you believe is most important about life, and about being a man? Kids need to hear from their fathers and father figures about that.
Greg and Brett: The Power of a Father Figure
If you have the privilege of being a dad, you are fortunate; don’t take it for granted.
Moving Video: A Perfect Father Figure
A recent story featured on ESPN's "Outside the Lines" epitomizes the Championship Fathering fundamental of Encouraging Other Kids.
Youth Violence – What Fathers Can Do
The brutal murder of a 16-year-old boy in Chicago several weeks ago has brought youth violence to the headlines once again. Many leaders agree that this latest example is one more wake-up call for our nation to take action to combat some alarming trends, but in all of the talk, there are few viable solutions recommended.
Lessons of a Big Brother and Mentor
A Dad’s Point-Of-View
One of the clichés about volunteerism is that "you get more than you give." In my case, it was true in ways and means I least expected. I’ve just become a Big Brother, again, to a 7-year-old boy and a mentor to a 23-year-old young man. As these relationships are new, I don’t yet know what lessons I will learn. But I know well the lessons I learned the first time around.
A Game of Hope (Must-See Video)
An amazing story of hope comes from Texas high school football. Kris Hogan, coach of the Faith Christian Lions in Grapevine, looked at his team’s schedule and noticed that they’d be playing against Gainesville State School, a correctional facility for teens. Leading up to that game, he had an out-of-the-box idea:
It's All About Kids
In this day and age, virtually every kid could use another friend. All of us must wake up a bit, attending to the tough circumstances in which too many kids are growing up. Being keenly alert to the essential importance of one-on-one relationships between adult mentors and kids and gaining understanding about the pivotal difference each of us can make.
Will you be my daddy?
Dad, there’s a kid who has a question for you. Just ask Jim.
Two Essays from Fatherless Kids
Kids need dads, and we can always find proof in some of the essays written for our essay contest. In the midst of the all happy sentiments we receive, these essays are reminders that many kids out there don’t have a father in their lives. The essays they send—about the importance of fathers—bring a whole different set of emotions.
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...