With the country’s current financial situation presenting a challenge to many families, there has never been a better time for fathers to use their parenting skills to teach their children some money basics.

If your children are very young, you can start by helping them discern between necessities and wants. If they are dying for a new toy, help them save up for it slowly by giving them a small regular allowance.

Most experts say that you should let kids have the freedom to decide how they spend their allowance. However, don’t forget to use your parenting skills to show them how to assess value and compare prices on various items.

Piggy banks are still a great tool for encouraging saving before your children have their own bank account. Consider matching any contribution your child makes to their savings, or dole out a small amount each month to introduce the concept of interest.

Your parenting skills can also be used to illustrate financial lessons in stores or at the supermarket. Whether you are single parenting or co-parenting, sitting down with your kids to work out a budget before shopping is a useful experience for all involved. Kids can check each item off the list as it is purchased.

Once you’re in the grocery store, challenge your kids to find the best deal on food and household items by comparing price by weight or volume. You can also task them with clipping coupons from the Sunday circulars each week. Kids will love to see how their actions are helping the family save.

When kids get older, they can start their own savings account at a bank. Consider asking relatives to give a savings bond as a present once in a while and, if appropriate, develop a system in which your child helps put money away for college.

Once your child reaches their teens, they may have the opportunity to get a part-time job, which can help them learn about checking accounts, taxes and more extensive money management.

James Dunsford is a single parenting and parenting skills specialist for greatdad.com.

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Whether you’re expecting your first child or your kids are grown and on their own, being a dad is a new experience.  When my wife was pregnant, we decided to have a homebirth.  We hired a doula and two midwives.  I won’t tell you how much it cost.  According to them and other experts, labor was going to last 10-12 hours.  My son had other plans.  My wife’s labor was so short that the only other person in the room when he was born was – guess who? – me.  After nine months of preparing to support my wife in the birth of my first child, there I was, with no medical training, serving as midwife, doula, and doctor.  I fought off the strong desire to run out of the room as fast as possible.  When I caught Joaquin, I experienced pure exhilaration and love.

After only 2 days into Joaquin’s life, I told my wife, “it’s amazing how something so little can make me feel so inadequate.”  For the next few months, I experienced periods of intense anxiety.  Realizing that I needed to grow just as Joaquin was growing, I started looking for resources to support me in what was sure to be an emotional journey.  To my dismay, I found very little.  Sure, there are father’s advocacy groups and organizations dedicated to maintaining the traditional family structure, but as for resources that addressed the personal development of fatherhood – nothing.  This was a sharp contrast to the wealth of resources for moms.  I found magazines, support groups, books, blogs, and newspaper articles for new and expectant mothers.  What I found for dads was mostly re-packaged how-to guides originally directed to mothers.

Even as a new father, I recognized that failure to acknowledge the inner work that must accompany fatherhood could have dire consequences on my personal and family life.  This is not, of course, a new idea.  In a recent article in Newsweek, a father shared that his wife had to parent him as much as his children, which led to a painful divorce.  My own father told my mother that he wasn’t ready to be a father after I was born.  If we fail to understand, acknowledge, and do something about the emotional challenges that we experience as fathers, we run the risk of alienating our partners, our children, and, most of all, ourselves.  We may end up leaving our loved ones and our emotional well-being behind.  The logistical aspects of fatherhood aren’t what tear families apart through neglect and divorce.  No father ever abandoned his child because he couldn’t figure out how to change a diaper.

The path of fatherhood has never been more rich or challenging.  Provision of shelter and food are no longer acceptable as the standard by which fathers are measured.  Our children, our partners, and our own innate intelligence dare us to be more – to be nurturers, companions, guides, and counselors.  The dramatic increase in stay at home dads proves that the model of fatherhood is changing rapidly for the better.  The fatherhood paradigm shift should not be underestimated.  Without recognition that change requires inner work, we run the risk of missing out on all the opportunities that fatherhood provides to become a better man, a better partner, and a better global citizen.  A fellow new dad once told me that fatherhood was wonderful because it burns up all of your bad habits.  I don’t know if I’ll ever shed all of my negative patterns, but I know that I owe it to myself and my son to be as available as possible both emotionally and physically.  If I don’t, I might just give in to the urge to run out of the room the next time he decides to do something wonderfully unexpected.

Born as a father on the same day as his son was born, Lome helps dads on the journey of fatherhood through workshops and one-on-one coaching. He recognizes that fatherhood is a personal journey for fathers as well as their children and strives to balance the more traditional responsibilities of bread-winner with more recent models of father as care-taker. To learn more about Lome’s work, visit www.newdadforlife.com
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Being a dad is great and has many benefits. Some of these are not as obvious as the love of a child and the happiness of a family.

Here superdads look at the not so obvious factors that recent research has unearthed. If you are currently on the verge of fatherhood or even if you’re already a dad check out the benefits it will have on your life:

Your health: Researchers have discovered a man who is a father will make better choices. The structured form a mans life takes when he becomes a dad encourages this as a decision is usually made in the best interests of the family not just the individual anymore. Getting in touch with the feminine side: The Minnesota Fatherhood Initiative found that men who succeeded as fathers became more in tune with their ability to care for people and show compassion. You may expect that this would be the case for their children and even their partner but apparently it extends to friends and work-colleagues too. Job Satisfaction Improves: Research supports the fact that fathers feel more comfortable in their occupation and feel that they perform well at work more often than men who are not fathers. It is also common for men to appreciate the need to go to work to support their family and are inclined to go to work with that in mind. Sex Life Will Improve: This is not a myth – as many new fathers will probably think this is a wind up. Committed fathers married to their children’s mother have more and better sex than men not in such a family relationship. Life judgement: Research shows that committed fathers are less likely to become involved in crime, are likely to make less visits to the hospital, are likely to live longer and have a reduced risk of becoming drug or alcohol dependant. Exercise Increases: A mixture of exercise and additional activities make you more active as a dad. Your stint on night duty with junior means getting up, entertaining the kids whether it’s walking in the park, taking the kids into the garden, playing with a ball or going for a ride on a bike, they all make dad more active. Reduced Risk of Depression. It is statistically proven that men who have a family are less likely to be depressed or tempted by suicide. Stress reduction. The National Institute of Mental Health found that men who are in healthy family relationships are less likely to suffer from issues such as insomnia, stomach problems and fatigue which can be stress-related health problems.

For more fatherhood information visit www.superdads.co.uk

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Fathers interested in ensuring their children lead happy lives may need to give out a couple of lessons in gratitude, according to new research.

Todd Kashdan, an associate professor of psychology at George Mason University, has found that the act of gratitude is “one of the essential ingredients for living a good life.”

However, fathers who want to instill these lessons in their children may have to use some extra parenting skills with their sons, says Kashdan.

According to the professor’s most recent paper, which was published online at the Journal of Personality website, men are less likely to feel and express gratitude than women.

In one of Kashdan’s studies, he interviewed college-aged students and older adults, asking them to describe a recent experience when they received a gift. The researcher found women felt greater levels of gratitude with the gifts, while men reported feeling burdened and obligated to return the favor.

“The way that we get socialized as children affects what we do with our emotions as adults,” said Kashdan. “Because men are generally taught to control and conceal their softer emotions, this may be limiting their well-being.”

Some researchers have suggested children as young as 18 months can grasp the concept of gratitude, even without any verbal skills.

Fathers may be able to teach gratitude by incorporating the idea of thankfulness into regular conversations with their children. One way to foster this is for fathers to have their children talk about the good things that happened to them that day at dinner.

Also, charity may be a way to teach a child to be grateful. With keen parenting skills, fathers can talk to their children about donating some of their older, under-used toys to other children who may not have as much.

However, perhaps the best way is to lead by example and fathers who thank their children after they complete a task or help around the house can instill a lesson of gratitude.

James Dunsford is a single parenting and parenting skills specialist for greatdad.com.
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I know it sounds funny but it’s true. My Dad’s a Mechanic and I am not. Dad is always having me help him fix his cars; I’m really just a “Go-Fer”, I go for a wrench, I go for a part, I go for a socket.

It’s the “go for a wrench or socket” that I have the most problem with. I can’t tell the difference between the Metric 12 and 1/2 inch sockets. They all look the same to me.

I seem to be always confused and I get the sockets mixed up, especially all those tiny 1/4″ drive sockets.

Dad has all his tiny 1/4″ sockets in one box. My eyes are good but I still can’t find the right size he wants. My Dad really wants me to find these small sockets for him as he just can’t read the lettering on them anymore. He tells me what size he needs and I try to find it for him within that pile of sockets, it’s like “the blind leading the blind”.

We had a big argument the other day; my dad yelled out “How! at the age of 15, can you not know how to tell one socket size from another”?

Well I blew up back, smarted off, was grounded for a month and immediately sent to my room.

Luckily I have a Computer in my room and while cruising Ebay I spotted these Socket Organizer Labels. They looked cool and maybe the answer to my problem, they were in my price range with free shipping, so I ordered some.

To my amazement they were in my mailbox when I got home from school two days later.

I went out to Dads shop, cleaned and labeled all of his Sockets and Wrenches. It was easy, “Green for Metric” went on the numbered Socket’s, “Red for S.A.E.” went on all inch Sockets. One size label fit all size Sockets, even the tiny quarter drives.

That night when Dad went out to his shop to work I went with him, as his “Go-Fer”. He asked me for an 1/2″ Socket, and to his amazement I quickly retrieved it for him.

Dad noticed the bright chrome label I had installed on the socket and had a curious look on his face. I smiled, than took him over and showed him what I had done.

He was downright knocked-out when he saw that he could now read the sizes on the quarter drives without glasses.

That was one pat on the back and hug I will never forget.

Dad was so happy he took me off restriction and guess what?

That night I met Amy, my first girlfriend.

Josh

This fictional story was developed from actual feedback received last year.

Fathers Day is on June 21st this year get your Socket and Wrench Labels now at: http://www.mysiteforsoreeyes.com

Bob Golden has spent 42 years working in the following trades, Structural Steel Engineering, Inventor and Auto Restoration Hobbiest.
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