Skip to main content

The Basics of Fatherhood

I came across an interesting little article in the New York Times on the Basics of Fatherhood that offered up eight simple rules to help frame the qualities that might shape a ‘good father’. It discussed (and linked to) an article by family therapist Marie Hartwell-Walker more broadly talks about the role of fathers in the modern world. Both are well worth checking out if you are a father, or are soon to be one.

I would like to think that I go alright on all of these, although to be honest, I could do a little more work on a few (as is always the case). It probably serves a useful purpose now and again to stop and assess how we are going in such an important role. As an aside, I like point seven, I try to make all discipline fun!
  • Embrace your responsibility
  • Be there
  • Be there throughout their childhoods
  • Respond to the needs of the kids, not your relationship with their mother
  • Be in a respectful and appreciative relationship with their mother
  • Do your financial share
  • Balance discipline with fun
  • Be a role model of adult manhood

Comments

Erik W. Laursen said…
They forgot laugh laugh laugh laugh laugh. My kid, and about every kid I've ever met, is really funny.
Dina said…
My father never read that article.
Oh well. Glad there is hope in your generation. So there is no "naughty chair" in the McCracken
home?
sam said…
it is cool how many modern fathers are taking the role so much more seriously than previous generations, and understanding how vital good fathering is. I must admit I have a problem with no 4, perhaps I am missing the point, but I dissagree with putting the needs of the kids above those of your spouse, because it teaches them to be bratty kids who think the world revolves around them, and undermines the primary relationship you will be left with long after the kids have left home! Hopefully both parents are interested in the needs of the kids, but they should be united, or kids quickly learn to play one of against the other.
Kris McCracken said…
I am already rolling out the well worn "I don't know why you're crying Henry, there are kids in Darfur who wouldn't turn their nose up at a lamb casserol like that!"

Popular posts from this blog

Lost inside an adorable illusion and I cannot hide, I'm the one you're using, please don't push me aside, we could've made it cruising, yeah.

Yes it is Theme Thusday again, and today we are talking GLASS . I've three possible hooks to hang my [glass] hat on with this theme. First, the photo! Yes, it is the river again from an odd angle in an interesting light. You can just make out the bottom, which should tell you that I'm right on the shore. In some ways, the distortion of the stones below the surface reminds me of ye olde glass windows, what they call "cylinder blown sheet glass". You can still find some of this around Hobart these days. Thw second link comes from a trip I took to Venice a few years back. You're probably aware that Venice was (is?) a glass-making centre of excellence. If you have ever been there and taken the tour of the glass factories, you might be familiar with the sheer amount of coloured glass that sits at the bottom of the water there. These fragments of glass have been worn down and had their edges dulled by their time in the water, which makes them ample keepsakes for the ...

Hold me now, oh hold me now, until this hour has gone around. And I'm gone on the rising tide, to face Van Dieman's Land

Theme Thursday again, and this one is rather easy. I am Tasmanian, you see, and aside from being all around general geniuses - as I have amply described previously - we are also very familiar with the concept of WATER. Tasmania is the ONLY island state of an ISLAND continent. That means, we're surrounded by WATER. That should help explain why I take so many photographs of water . Tasmania was for a long time the place where the British (an island race terrified of water) sent their poor people most vile and horrid criminals. The sort of folk who would face the stark choice of a death sentence , or transportation to the other end of the world. Their catalogue of crimes is horrifying : stealing bread assault stealing gentlemen's handkerchiefs drunken assault being poor affray ladies being overly friendly with gentlemen for money hitting people having a drink and a laugh public drunkenness being Irish Fenian terrorist activities being Catholic religious subversion. ...

Happy anniversary baby, got you on my mind

No it is not a webcam, but this photograph was taken a mere forty-five ago on my way in to work. Here you can see a good old fashioned Hobart autumn morning, with the rain pelting down and me getting drenched. This one was taken on the corner of Macquarie and Elizabeth, while I was waiting for the lights to change. Come on Ampelmännchen ! Today is my wedding anniversary, an apparently I need to be showering Jen with leather -related goodies. Va-va-vaVOOM! To you Jennifer, here is a poem I wrote this very morning. Anniversary I love you i love you iloveyouiloveyouiloveyou I LOVE you I love YOU iloveyouiloveyouiloveyou I LOVE YOU iloveyouiloveyouiloveyou Happy anniversary