What Are You Looking For!

Hey everybody! I am in the process of updating the design for our Fatherhood Program for 2013! I would love to hear from you if you have any ideas or recommendations on what new or expectant dads might be looking for in a Fatherhood Parenting program!

Here is what we already include:

• Practical childcare and development video series
• 24/7 Dad Developmental material for fathers
• You Have What it Takes (By John Eldridge)
• Scripture Component
• One on One time with a mentor

Each visit last about 45 minutes to one hour and some material is sent home for completion! Participants earn points and gifts as they complete the program.

We plan to start a short course in 2013 that takes about 1/2 as long as the traditional course.

Post your ideas or thoughts!

Here is a great piece for dads that I received on email today!

From Focus on the Family

The only path to manhood is through boyhood.

If you're a dad, you know that your parental responsibility isn't limited to merely providing financially for your kids. It's about molding and shaping their character, as well.



In fact, investing in your child's spiritual growth is perhaps the most important job you will undertake as a father. This is especially true if you have a son. As a dad, you are uniquely positioned to shape your son's faith by teaching him from the Scriptures and through the consistent modeling of virtues such as tenacity, integrity, faithfulness and perseverance.



This may be much simpler than you suppose. When you make promises, keep them. Stay true to your word. If you "keep on keeping on" when life tries to knock you down—if you look persistently to the Lord to be your strength in the midst of personal weakness—you will earn the authority to tell your boy that hard work is its own reward and that giving up is unacceptable. By learning his special "love language" and demonstrating what it means to be compassionate towards people of all ages, conditions, races and walks of life, you can cement a life-long bond with your child and help him grasp the difference between a genuinely Christ-like man and the so-called "macho man" of high school locker rooms and popular culture.

For more ways to invest in your child's spiritual growth visit FocusOnTheFamily.com.

Leadership

Here is the second post from Clay who is 11 years old from Dothan , Alabama.

Basically if the dad leads his kids to think that doing bad stuff isn’t really bad then the kids are going to grow up doing bad things as if they were good things. But if the dad teaches his kids not to do bad things then they will grow up doing the right thing. The dad has a big impact on their kid’s life, wherever he leads them, most of the time they will follow.

Wiregrass Hope Group Fatherhood Program

Hey guys!,

This post is for all of dads out there who have been a part of the Fatherhood program here at the Wiregrass Hope Group! I hope this might be a place where we all can stay connected together and be a resource for each other has we navigate fatherhood! It is always better to have others to talk to. Here, you can post anonymously or you can leave your name. Let me know what topics you might want covered and I will see what I come up with! Chances are, you are not the only one with questions!

I look forward to staying connected with you guys!

A Kid's Eye View!

The next five posts I, a ten year old kid named Clay, will tell you why a dad is important from a kid’s point of view. "Dads are important because they provide leadership to the family, they provide stability to the family environment and they teach character skills to their children." Stay tuned for the next post that will have a few more details on my opinion!

Could It Be Worse

As Director of a Fatherhood Program, I often have the time and requirement to sift through a lot of data on fatherhood. I recently acquired a copy of National Fatherhood Initiative's "Father Facts 6th edition". I have a  previous edition and it is a wealth of knowledge for anyone in the social assitance resource arena. As I read through some of the most current data, I noticed that there was a slight decrease in the percentage of children living in "father absent homes". In 2010, 20,324 children were absent a father figure. This was down from 20,516 in 2005. Although a .5 percent decrease in 5 years is a very small amount, it must be a very relative amount in the eyes of the 292 children affected! It shows a positive move toward father involvement. The true test will be having another drop in 2015. History demonstrates that there is a rise and fall every five years on this area. We'll have to see what happens!

Fatherhood

What does it mean to be a good father? What does that look like? How do we know that we are being all that we can be? Every family has a dynamic composition. This means a different number of children, a non-flexible job schedule, special needs, and relationships with and between mom and dads. These factors and more play a part in how a dad carries out his responsibilities as a father. It would be great if the job came with a checklist of items that we could go through everyday to make sure we don't miss out on meeting the needs that our families present.
However, since it is true that all families and situations are different, there is no "one size fits all" solution. There is no one fail proof checklist that we can run through and there is no "perfect answer" for the question  "How do I be a good father?". Instead of a rigid answer to the question or a set of bullet points to run through, there is a simple guiding principle... Love Your Children. Check out the next post for a deeper look at this simple truth in raising children!