Jon Davies is leaving Families Need Fathers. He writes:
After almost four years taking FNF from a little known and often misunderstood charity to something approaching respectability it is time to move! I have been planning this for some time but my Damascene moment came when I saw three and a half out of four of our policy demands in the coalition programme. ‘Leave while they’re still applauding’ as some now long forgotten music hall comedian once said.
“It is time for a new conversation around fatherhood in this country.”
I feel I am watching history in the making – the most powerful man in the world talking about his own struggles as a father, speaking for all fathers. And he recognises our “days of worry and struggle” and our “scrimping . . . → Read More: Barack Obama speaks about fatherhood
This is a bronze sculpture of a father and child. As it happens, it is in our garden, though it does not belong to us. The artist, Caroline Mackenzie, asked us to look after it while she was living in India and it has been here ever since.
Yesterday, at the invitation of the Royal College of Midwives, I debated with the famous French obstetrician, Michel Odent, “should men be at the birth of babies?” The debate was discussed in the national papers, on the BBC TV news (twice), on radio stations (four times on . . . → Read More: Should men be at the birth of babies? What I said in the debate with Michel Odent.
In the last month, the Daily Mail has run five particularly good pieces on modern fatherhood – well informed, sympathetic, challenging of stereotypes. Taken together, they represent a remarkable portrait of fatherhood today. I take my hat off to the Daily Mail!
The Daily Mail, along with various other national papers, reported last week on a new genre of confessional literature – by new fathers experiencing negative feelings after their baby was born: The fatherhood taboo.
One of the authors of the three books, is quoted as saying, “New mums are better at parenting than new dads, but there’s a reason why: they are programmed to mother.”
This resulted in an outpouring of comments in the following days, most characterised by generosity and common sense – 176 comments in total. It is the best discussion on fatherhood on-line that I have ever seen. Participation was 50/50 men and women. About one quarter of respondents agreed with the statement and the rest disagreed – vehemently.
Tradition: the sacred mother-baby bond. Joseph is there in the dark, top right if you look very carefully!
Last week was Mind’s Mental Health Week and it focussed on men. And this week I am speaking at the Primary Care 2009 conference on postnatal depression and fathers. (I am told my audience will be about 1000 people!) Here is my full presentation, which is summarised below (references at end of blog).
Eight studies on PND and fathers have been published since 2008 and in June the Daily Telegraph and the BBC highlighted the issue: Father’s baby blues blight children.
Jon Davies is leaving Families Need Fathers. He writes:
