Fathers 4 Fathers Dads helping Dads be Dads
Becoming a Father
It happened to me towards the end of January 2008, what probably will always be the most amazing day of my life. After suspecting for a few weeks, we plucked up enough courage together, to go and buy a pregnancy test. The preganacy test confirmed what we already knew, and sent me tumbling down the path towards fatherhood.
Despite being in my early 30s at the time and in a committed relationship, I did not see myself as a father. I was just someone elses son and still a boy having fun at heart. And thus the first big fatherhood challenge I was to face, landed in my lap. How was I to make fatherhood a reality in my own mind, within the 9 short months Grace which pregnancy gave me. Talk about a self image adjustment!
In speaking to my friends, I quickly realised this was a common challenge that many expectant first time fathers face. And even more quickly, I realised there were a few other challenges, quietly lurking behind tomorrow, waiting to catch me off guard. Including:
- The barrage of conflicting information about all elements of pregnancy. It literally left me spinning.
- "Know-it-all" women, intruding on the important and intimate decisions I had to make with my partner, when our relationship and family boundaries should have been respected.
- A lack of "real life" advice, which was developed from the experiences of real men, hitting and overcoming the challenges of fatherhood.
Being a Dad
And this is the inspiration of Fathers4Fathers.com. A website made by fathers, for fathers, so you can share your experiences, challenges and battles with people who understand what you are going through. Obviously as our children grow, so do we as fathers. My hope is that the development of this website will reflect our collective growth, making it an invaluable resource for future Dads who will face the same challenges we are.
This website is an interactive effort; with a blog, a forum, and a newsletter which I'd love you to contribute to. This way we can all learn from each other. Heaven knows I don't have all the answers. (although I certainly seem to be hitting the questions with increasing regularity) In working together this way, as men, we can help each other and the next generation of fathers bring up our children with strong, male influences in their lives. This is something which clearly, many children lack today.
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