Forty-two per cent of prisoners in New South Wales jails are on remand, jailed without a trial. “They are treated like animals. Life in jail is appalling. It is awful in ways that most people could never imagine.” This is an experienced criminal lawyer talking about the men, the increasing proportion of our prison population, who find themselves imprisoned without a trial. On remand and locked up in vile conditions with violent, dangerous people. They are being locked up because of changes to our bail legislation, which are resulting in more and more men being refused bail – shut away for mo ..read more

Do you already have the “perfect” plan designed for your children’s lives? As mothers, I believe this is a particularly difficult area to manoeuvre. Wanting the very best for our children, we can get our hearts set on the best preschool to the best college. Knowing how hard it can be in this world, we press in with our plans, suggesting or insisting our children pursue the degree, career or marriage choices we think are best. Divine Providence The problem comes when we forget the most important part of the plans: God’s thoughts and His ways. Although there is value in our wisdom and experience ..read more

The concept of a Love Bank was first developed by best-selling author Dr Willard Harley in 1986. Put simply, it is how we keep track of the way each person treats us. Dr Harley developed The Love Bank as the first of ten basic concepts to help married couples fall in love and stay in love. When it comes to being excellent fathers for our children, The Love Bank is also a very useful concept. The team at Dads4Kids recently discovered the story of Jerrad Lopes on Newsweek (not a website we regularly visit or recommend). Lopes, a Christian author, speaker, and the founder of Dad Tired, is from th ..read more

All dads want to be the best father they can. But it can be tough to know how to do this after separation. Here, Mensline Australia offers some parenting tips on how to be positive around your kids while dealing with your own stuff, like anger, sadness and loneliness. It’s difficult to be positive around your kids when you’re dealing with your own issues, like anger, sadness and loneliness. All dads want to be the best father they can. But it can be tough to know how to do this once separated, especially when there’s ongoing conflict with your ex-partner. Please note that these tips assume yo ..read more

Last week was our toughest yet as parents. It all began when Squish endured a few days of unexplained fevers and interrupted sleep. We eventually found a rock-hard lump on her leg that was clearly the source of her pain. We got in the car and went straight to the emergency department. Several hours later, Elsa had an ultrasound, a diagnosis (an infected lymph node), and some antibiotics. However, all was not well. Two days on, things had only gotten worse. We returned to emergency and waited several more hours for the news that our baby needed surgery to drain the infection. For such a young ..read more

Are you able to ‘shake it off’ when faced with the stress of looming deadlines, relationship conflicts, family pressures, long work hours and burgeoning household chores? If not, you’re perfectly normal. For many of us, the strains of daily life can quickly take their toll, causing anxiety and distress. Learning new ways of managing stress can be useful for all of us, regardless of the life stage or the situation we find ourselves in. Whether you’ve got five minutes to spare or want to build lasting habits – today we’re opening the textbook on six scientifically-backed ways to boost your happi ..read more

Australian singer-songwriter Colin Buchanan is a national living treasure. He’s an ARIA, APRA and nine times Golden Guitar winner, ABC TV Play School presenter, Australia’s number one kids’ Christian artist, sought-after co-writer and the Bucko of Bucko & Champs’ classic Aussie Christmas — an Australian institution! He’s even recorded a hilarious version of My Dad’s Better Than Your Dad, an old song my friends and I used to jokingly sing to each other in the schoolyard. My family and I are BIG Colin Buchanan fans! So when I logged into Spotify the other week and saw Colin had released a ne ..read more

I’ve heard it said that the best gift you can give to your child is a sibling. After all, relationships between siblings are often the longest relationships in life, remaining long after the loss of parents and friends. Plus, the best sibling groups will not only be close during childhood, but they will also rely on each other as they enter adult life, move away from home, and start their own families. How do parents set children up for this close-knit future? Fostering good relationships between children starts with family dynamics, and parents must incorporate four critical elements to help ..read more

by JC Clapham Finding the secret to respectful, civil and constructive co-parenting is important for your kids. The reality of how my kids’ mother and I were, and are, as parents really surprised me. Our personality types and general approach to life ended up being the opposite to our parenting styles. Before our first came along, I assumed we’d continue in a similar vein: me as the quieter, more relaxed and sensitive one, and my then-wife as the more driven, firmer and more ‘in charge’ person. Those personalities and roles worked well for us as a couple. In fact, they were a large part of wha ..read more

by Cadence McManimon Contemporary America is hounded by terms like “toxic masculinity”, “the patriarchy”, and “the male gaze”. Men all over the nation — indeed, the world — are lambasted daily by derogatory, angry media seeking to devalue and wipe out their nature. I have a message for you: Don’t listen to it. Masculine men are the very thing we need — now more than ever in the battle of traditionalism versus progressivism. Though the media has attacked the vital value of gender itself, we know they’re wrong. We know male and female is how we’re made. Even now, traditional femininity is making ..read more