Tory ministers yesterday previewed a green paper which proposes more rights for dads to see their kids. The reforms would be good news for fathers if they were not set amongst a series of potentially unhelpful family policies which would cancel out any potential benefits of the plans.
Speaking to The Guardian, the shadow minister for employment and skills David Willetts laid out the paper’s vision. In it the party proposes making it easier for grandparents and fathers to stay in contact with children when marriages break up and outlines plans to provide more help for fathers in struggling relationships. The long-called for fatherhood reforms, however, are packaged in with a raft of other measures designed to ’strengthen’ the family; with increasing the number of marriages in the UK at the heart of the paper. More…
The Daily Record today reported that a Scottish man took his own life to be with his dead son – highlighting the devastating effect of losing a child.
Allan Hogg,30, strangled himself in what appears to be a suicide pact after his eight-year old son Connor died in a car crash. His wife Kelly is quoted as saying: “I know it might sound strange to some people but when you are about to lose a child you love more than anything in the world, you want to do everything in your power to protect them. If that means taking you own life, then that is the sacrifice we decided to make.”
While the idea of suicide may seem inconceivable to most fathers, for Mr Hogg it was clearly the only path out that he could see – despite the fact that he left a wife and 13-year-old daughter behind him.
Whether you agree with his decision or not, it shows the turmoil that fathers face when losing a child and the struggle they face to carry on after they have gone.
It’s official: nearly half of UK dads don’t get back from work until after their sprogs get to bed. The Daily Mail today put this down to the frantic pace of modern life.
However, most fathers know the real reason why they’re not around to put their little ones in their cots; putting a child down is an ugly, drawn-out process with more noise and bodily fluids that a man is designed to take with any number of permutations of the following: food, cry, bath, shit, cry, change, cry, bottle, cry, sick, cry, cry, cry.
You might have thought it would take a lot of talent and dedication for a father to make his child an Internet sensation, but apparently all you need is a Flip and a mild sedative. Youtube announced today that David After Dentist was its second most viewed clip of 2009 – proving that fancy camerawork and innovative ideas are nothing on a goofy kid feeling a bit woozy in the back seat of a car. Someone pass me the Temazepam; there’s something I need to do….
Mums hate us for it, but putting babies in places they shouldn’t be is something that the male species finds ludicrously funny. There is no reason why babies should ever be put in these situations but if they are, you will laugh.
Ryan Giggs proved last night that there is no place unfit for a dad to embarrass his children- showing that it can even be done whilst accepting a national award live on TV.
At the end of a humble acceptance speech in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award , the Manchester United winger took the opportunity to give an unashamed message for his children to call it a night.
“Liberty and Zach, you can go to bed now. You’ve got school in the morning,” he said proudly before stepping down from the podium with his over sized trophy.
You can only imagine how much stick the poor little Giggs’s are getting on the playground this morning.
It is a sad fact of fatherhood that dads love it when they get the opportunity to send their kids a nice shade of pink, but not many of us will ever get the chance to do it on such a public stage.
It doesn’t take long for new dads to realise that sprogs look hilarious in fancy dress. Whether you dress the little buggers up as cows, reindeers, robots, Santa Claus or Marilyn Monroe, it is your duty as a father to make them look as silly as possible and document the hilarity with photographic evidence for bribery purposes later on in life.
And what better way to make your sprog look ridiculously cute than with a full head of hair in the style of your favourite follically well-endowed celebrity? These guys have given us the means by which to do it. God bless them.
It seems that everyone is having their work Christmas parties this week. Love them or hate them, it’s amazing how quickly the experience changes when you have a child.
Previously, a festive office bash would probably have gone as follows: A bit of booze. Too much food. A bit more booze. Too much flirting with the office bike. A bit more booze. On to the next pub. Inane talk about boobs. A bit more booze. An-un-informed debate about pseudo-political topics. A bit more booze. Angry call from girlfriend asking when you might be thinking of coming home. A bit more booze. Feel a bit queasy. A bit more booze. Closing time. Stumble out of pub. Hug people you wouldn’t usually even shake hands with. Eat a filthy kebab. Stumble home. Giggle. Sleep on floor.
Now, it’s probably more like this: Arrive at pub. Check phone to make sure that everything is alright at home. Have a quick sip of wine. Talk about babies with dullest lady in the office and find youself dragged in to a debate about domestic care arrangements with a senior manager you have no interest in talking to. Have another quick glass of wine. Check phone to make sure everything’s alright at home. Joke about the fact that you are on day release from home. Think that it’s all slightly boring and that you would quite like to go home. Watch the younger people in the office get more drunk and more flirtacious to the point where you feel uncomfortable. Leave early – just at the point where the normally reserved girl from accounts is starting her tabletop dancing routine. Think in your head that you’re a little bit sadder than you were last year. Smile because you don’t really care.
Today’s report by Ofsted that nearly a third of local children’s services are ‘adequate’or ‘poor’ will no doubt shock many dads. It will be especially worrying for those who live in the ten ‘poor’ rated areas, including Haringey, the area embroiled in the recent Baby P scandal.
What is more surprising is that the ‘comperehensive’ review of services does not make any reference to services that councils provide for fathers – something which dads’ think tank The Fatherhood Institute picked up on earlier this week.
Having decent support for fathers, and particuarly single dads, is an important part of giving kids a stable foundation, so it is a great shame that it was not included in the reports released today.
The Sprogfather is for UK dads who aren’t embarrassed to be family men but aren’t about to go all soppy about it.
In the words of Don Corleone: “A man that doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man."
