The other glass ceiling: fathers stepping up, mothers letting go

With special guest:

• Charles Areni

In the news lately there have been frequent references to pay differentials between males and females. This is often put down to the different opportunities available in the workplace because of gender roles that are a hangover from a less-enlightened past. But what about the denial of opportunities to look after the children and get involved in other areas around the home? In brief, Mums have too many roles, Dads have too few.

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NAIDOC Week 2015

With special guest:

• Dale Huddleston

We hear a lot about “the Intervention”, Aboriginal incarceration rates, and problems in Aboriginal communities. Not so much about the positive stories relating to the original inhabitants of Australia.

In today’s program we have an opportunity to listen to Dale Huddleston who is a renowned Aboriginal artist and musician, Chairman of the Burrunju Aboriginal Corporation and Outreach Worker for the Gugan Gulwan Youth Aboriginal Corporation in Canberra.

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Still a Pygmy

With special guest:

• Isaac Bacirongo

When you are born and raised in Australia you know little about life as a refugee despite it being a frequent topic for conversation and opinion. Most of us have never spoken to a refugee.

Our guest today is Isaac Bacirongo who arrived in Sydney in 2003 with his wife and ten children as refugees after surviving the effects of Rwanda’s civil war in his own country, Congo.

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Schools of Fish

With special guest:

• Alan Sampson

Schools of Fish won the 2015 Finch Memoir Prize for author Alan Sampson, a Queenslander, who by telling us about his own experiences lets us find out much about the importance of a father’s relationship with his children. A big part of the story relates to Alan’s role as Principal at the well-known Cavendish Road State High School in Brisbane. There are times at school when personal courage is required as well as unshakable integrity if favourable results are to be achieved.

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COOKING for Kids BY DADS

With special guest:

• Mick Both

When you listen to Mick’s interview, just like when you see his face looking straight at you on the cover of his new book you know the sort of bloke he is. Mick is a straight shooter with a background in the military who takes us into the kitchen on a practical mission. COOKING for Kids BY DADS does not assume any prior knowledge of the essential art of cooking. In language we can all understand and with gorgeous photos we get the picture on how Dad can go from zero to hero with his kids and his family generally.

This book is most needed when Dad suddenly realises that for whatever reason he should be the one doing the cooking. This could be due to one-off events or when a more permanent arrangement is required and Dad cannot rely on a significant other to feed the hungry. Not that some Mums haven’t caught up with the benefits of being able to leave Dad in the kitchen or to brush up themselves on a few basics.

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Fathers and Daughters – What are the issues?

With special guest:

• Professor Linda Nielsen

Our guest, Professor Linda Nielsen speaks to us today from North Carolina in the United States about a topic that nearly everyone has a stake in but on which there is very little guidance. How important is the relationship between a daughter and her father? This topic has been explored by Dr Nielsen in her latest book Father-Daughter Relationships: Contemporary Research & Issues.

Many studies have been directed at the importance of a mother’s relationships with her children. But a father may need some reassurance about the value of his relationship with his daughter particularly if he feels more comfortable with his son. The first thing we get to check with Dr Nielsen is what is it that fathers do for their daughters? Are they really needed?

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SuperDad SpeedBible: The toolbox for men with young kids

With special guest:

• Ryan Heffernan

Ever thought about how when you leave the hospital with your new baby you do not receive an instruction manual? Our guest this week Ryan Heffernan has addressed this issue. In his entertaining and informative book Ryan provides a welcome toolbox for any Dad left with the responsibility of caring for a young child in the age range of 0-6. In fact any parent will welcome this no-nonsense source book for handling the challenges of parenting where you get the benefit of learning from a single Dad’s experience. What’s more with Ryan Heffernan giving us the lesson there is a lot of fun to be had which everyone can enjoy.

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Ten Conversations You Must Have With Your Son

With special guest:

• Dr Tim Hawkes

Parents are all too familiar with the difficulties of relating to their sons in a language that they understand while they grow from boys to men. Our guest today is Dr Tim Hawkes who as Headmaster of The King’s School is responsible for 1500 boys. Dr Hawkes has held this position since 1998 adding to a wealth of experience gained in England and Australia on how boys can best reach their potential as men.

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Parenting today in Amsterdam

With special guest:

• Benjamin Wondergem

Our guest today brings a European flavour to the program. Benjamin has confronted both personally and professionally many of the problems we see in Australia relating to shared parenting and fathers gaining access to their own children if the other parent is unwilling.

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Out on a Limb

With special guest: 

•  Simon Turner

 Simon Turner’s book Out on a Limb is refreshingly plain speaking. To read the book is like sitting down with a mate who has some important, perhaps life-changing, information to share. Using language we can all relate to, Simon takes us through the jungle that confronts a father at the gates of a Family Law dispute with the mother of their children.

Simon discusses what he describes as the three golden rules that were passed on to him informally by a Family Court Judge in an Art Gallery rather than a court room. Based on these golden rules Simon gives some invaluable ideas about how a dad can give himself the best chance of continuing to parent his child after a separation or divorce.

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Should Mums and Dads share parental leave?

With special guest:

• Adrienne Burgess

Our guest today talks to us from London. Adrienne Burgess has researched paternity leave around the world and she tells us what is important from both the parents’ and the children’s perspectives with a few surprises.

Paid parental leave has stirred up a lot of feeling in Australia after being made the signature policy of Prime Minister Abbott. We are still uncertain about what is planned or even when changes are likely to be introduced. Minister Kevin Andrews stated recently that it was not yet possible to say whether a revamped passage would be ready for its scheduled start on July 1, 2015.

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Reservoir Dad

With special guest:

• Clint Greagen

Our guest today provides us with an entertaining peek into what is still an unusual career in our society. Clint Greagen is a stay-at-home Dad with the skills of an award-winning blogger who tells us about his life in suburban Melbourne with four boy-children and a loving working wife.

There is nothing un-masculine about Clint’s struggles as he is assigned to buy breast pads for his wife and to do the cooking / washing / cleaning for the family. He has to juggle these responsibilities and apply some logic in the middle of the chaos and craziness.

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The other glass ceiling: fathers stepping up, mothers letting go

With special guest

• Charles Areni

In the news lately there have been frequent references to pay differentials between males and females. This is often put down to the different opportunities available in the workplace because of gender roles that are a hangover from a less-enlightened past. But what about the denial of opportunities to look after the children and get involved in other areas around the home? In brief, Mums have too many roles, Dads have too few.

Listen Now (MP3)

Click to read more ...

SuperDad SpeedBible: The toolbox for men with young kids

With special guest:

• Ryan Heffernan

Ever thought about how when you leave the hospital with your new baby you do not receive an instruction manual? Our guest this week Ryan Heffernan has addressed this issue. In his entertaining and informative book Ryan provides a welcome toolbox for any Dad left with the responsibility of caring for a young child in the age range of 0-6. In fact any parent will welcome this no-nonsense source book for handling the challenges of parenting where you get the benefit of learning from a single Dad’s experience. What’s more with Ryan Heffernan giving us the lesson there is a lot of fun to be had which everyone can enjoy

Listen Now (MP3)

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Ten Conversations You Must Have With Your Son

With special guest:

•   Dr Tim Hawkes

Parents are all too familiar with the difficulties of relating to their sons in a language that they understand while they grow from boys to men. Our guest today is Dr Tim Hawkes who as Headmaster of The King’s School is responsible for 1500 boys. Dr Hawkes has held this position since 1998 adding to a wealth of experience gained in England and Australia on how boys can best reach their potential as men.

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NAIDOC Week

With special guests:

• Rick Welsh
• Uncle Gerald Brown

We have a great music selection in our program today, starting with the Jimmy Cliff song Many Rivers to Cross as featured recently in the award winning MABO telemovie on the ABC. This is followed by a song from Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu from his Rrakala album. Translated this song refers to the Salt Water People and that describes our second guest today. The songs selected by our guests reflect some important messages that they pass on to us.

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Parental Alienation Action

 With special guests:

• Jill Egizii
• Karen Lebow

In the USA just as in Australia there are many judges, lawyers, psychiatrists and psychologists who have no idea of the damage done by parental alienation. Many in the general public do not even know there is a name for what they see happening to friends, workmates and even themselves.

For this reason it is vital that we improve the awareness and education relating to parental alienation. With that awareness of the damage done to children and parents will come social change.

Today we cross to the USA to talk to two highly motivated women who have their own personal stories to tell. They tell us how they used their own experience as a springboard to develop networks and action plans for dealing with this form of child abuse.

If you are not sure about what can be done to respond to this blight on our parenting practices listen in to hear what our guests are doing in such a big way.
 

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A brighter future for our youth

With Special guests:

• Chad Kolcze
• Martin Fisk

Our show today features up front a beautiful and haunting song by Janis Vaile about Parental Alienation. Icicles (I will wait for you) will be part of an upcoming special on the topic.

After a long time away from the studio our return to the airwaves was graced by the presence of two people who are doing something about boys at greater risk. At a time when there are so many one-parent families we know these risks.

Boys in families without Dads are more at risk of suicide, to have behavioural problems, to drop out of school and they represent over 70% of the inmates in juvenile state institutions.

To help counter these social problems there are good people providing mentoring services and other assistance. Today we cross to Byron Bay in the north of New South Wales and then to the nation’s capital, Canberra, to hear what Chad Kolcze and Martin Fisk are doing about keeping our youth happy and healthy.

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Our Closing the Gap Special

With special guests:

• Aaron Stuart
• Craig Hammond

We cross today to the frontline when we speak to Aaron Stuart who is the Manager of Aboriginal Projects at Centacare in Port Augusta South Australia. It is hard for many of us to imagine what it would be like to be the first person called after a suicide by one of our people. And then for it to happen again and again. Aaron is facing an endemic where the Aboriginal rate of suicide is four times greater than for non-Indigenous Australians and with children sometimes as young as 8 succumbing. Aaron provides some inspiring lessons about the positive action he is taking and tells us how he copes with the terrible stresses that go with his job.

Next we speak to Craig “Bourkie” Hammond who is the Leader Indigenous Programs, Family Action Centre, University of Newcastle. Craig is involved with a number of projects including the Nar-un-bah and Thou Walla engaging Aboriginal Fathers project. Fathering roles in the Aboriginal community extend to grandparents, uncles and older brothers. As one of eleven children himself and with a background as a youth worker Bourkie brings his skills and reputation to provide guidance and assistance in strengthening the relationship between Indigenous fathers and their children.

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Good Sports and Great Dads

With special guests:

• Peter FitzSimons
• Neil Young

Our guests today have both written about what it means to be a father and they let us in on some of the influences that have shaped the way they relate to their children.

Peter FitzSimons is well known through his exploits on the rugby field and as a wide ranging author, journalist and commentator. We talk to Peter about his family values that were implanted as part of a big family growing up in Peats Ridge New South Wales.

Neil Young grew up in England but having come under the spell of life in the Byron Bay region he became a late blossomer on the soccer field and most importantly as a father. Neil has some great stories, some funny and some poignant, about his experiences on and off the field.

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