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As Father’s Day is just around the corner, we are excited to be releasing our ‘Your Child Needs You’ Dads4Kids TV and Community Service Announcements.

Already Channel 7 nationally has said yes, as well as community channels, Imparja, and Australian Christian Channel. We expect that all the commercial regional stations will play it, and are hoping that Channel 9 will say yes, as it has done before. Unfortunately, Metro 10 is not family-friendly.

To celebrate the official release of the Dads4Kids TV Campaign, ‘Your Child Needs You’, we thought we would ask three fathers from the adverts to give you their top three tips for being a great dad.

Joe Youssef has 4 children and is pictured playing with his little baby with a beautiful shock of black hair.

Joe’s #1 tip for dads in the lead-up to Father’s Day is to tell your children that you love them every day. According to Joe, love is the key, and I can’t help but agree with him.

Joe’s #2 – you have to be there for your children. When Joe says you have to be there, he means it. You as a dad, need to take notice of your children. Appreciate and live in the moment, because it is the moments of child/father connection that really matter.

Joe’s #3 – as a father you have to come down to your children’s level and try to understand things from their viewpoint. When you understand from their point of view, you need to do your best to come into agreement with them. Ed Cole said, “The place of agreement is the place of power”. Joe is not suggesting you come into agreement with wrongdoing, it’s more about keeping the peace and picking your battles. The main battle is the battle for love. That is the only battle you have to win.

James Wilson is also a committed father of 4, who is pictured in the Ad driving his children in his van.

James’ #1 piece of advice is “Breathe Daily”. When I asked him what he meant, he said, “Every day when I come home from work, I arrive at the front door, take a deep breath and pray a silent prayer, asking God for help as a husband and father. I do the same in the morning and it works!” Fathering is too tough a job to do on your own.

James’ #2 James believes that we as dads need to focus on connection rather than control. I asked him for an example. He said, “When you come home in the afternoon after work, rather than asking your children about the things they haven’t done – like chores and homework – ask them questions like ‘How are you? How was your day at school? Can we have some fun together?

My older ones like playing a game of handball or soccer, whereas my young daughters enjoy finger painting, tea parties or dolls. You have to connect with your children by doing the things that they like to do.”

James’ #3 – ENJOY THE MOMENTS. Time is very short, so you have to enjoy the moments. This includes enjoying the moments with your wife, because you and she are the team your children need.

John Kennedy, father of 5, is the Indigenous Dad, in the NAIDOC T-shirt, reading a book to his children on the lounge.

John’s #1 tip is: “You have to pray together – the family that prays together stays together. I remember when my Pop passed away, I was brokenhearted. I was driving along the road with my children, and my wife and I was crying so we pulled over and prayed together, and we all felt better afterwards. If you have a bad day you pray. If you have a good day, you give thanks in prayer. If I have challenges with my marriage, I pray with my wife, and through prayer, we sort it out. For me, prayer with my family is my most powerful secret to being a good Dad.”

John’s #2 – Tell your children you love them, even when they mess up and especially when they mess up. Your children need to know that they have two parents who love them.

John’s example was when his youngest son told him that a shopkeeper had searched him and how upsetting it was to him. Thinking that this needed to be investigated properly, John and his wife took their son around to the local grocery store to have a chat with the owner. They found out that their son had stolen a drink and put it in his backpack. They told their son they were very disappointed in him and made him apologise to the shopkeeper. However, the next day both parents went out of their way to tell their son how much they loved him. John made a very good point when he said, “We can lose our children with too much correction”. As a wise man was said to champion many years ago, it’s all about having the right balance of grace and truth with our children.

John’s #3 – John goes out of his way to spend a lot of time with his children. To do this, he engages in various activities, sports, games, reading, playing with toys and even playing dolls with his daughters.

Lovework

There you have the top three tips from three amazing fathers.

The challenge now, as always, is to put them into action.

Have a happy week in the lead-up to Father’s Day.

Yours for our children,

Warwick Marsh

PS: Overcomer is going gangbusters in the cinemas. This is a must-see family movie. Go and see it now before it’s too late. Watch the trailer here and find a cinema near you here.