I prefer just plain old physical paternity. Keeps thing simple.

The value of the paternal contribution is way under-recognised, and it will continue to be so while ever men's consent is not required.

Pounding on men will only make matters worse. For myself, I will never consent until I receive an acceptable exchange. Women unequally bear the costs of reproduction, and not as a social construct either. And men unequally bear the costs of getting women to spread their legs, in case you haven't noticed.

Therefore any arrangement by which men enter into social paternity on the basis of equality with women, will be inherently unfair, and we would expect men to desert it in droves, which they are doing. All women are doing is trying shuck off the costs of their own reproductive chances and choices onto men, who reproductive chances and choices are by nature different and to some extent conflicting. It is sexist, discriminatory, patriarchal, and unjust that policy should force one sex, as a group, to sacrifice their sexual or reproductive interests to another, which is the situation we have now.

Any article that starts off with a quote from holy Kevin Andrews is always going to be suspect.

I started to wade my way through the pages of red highlighted action quotes and I lost interest. All I saw were whinges and whines about how badly off men are in our world.
Imagine how hard it must be for the even worse off females then?

This author is touted as an 'expert' on men and boys.
Why?
Because he works at a university and listens to mad politicians such as Kevin Andrews.
Most of the boys on this site won't listen to 'academics' anyway, will you boys?

From where I sit, the bulk of males in our society don't do too bad at all.

NO! Not in the suburban Melbourne I frequent. I am constantly delighted as I walk through our shopping area on weekends and holidays and see so many fathers with infants and toddlers in strollers, some shopping, some just walking, no mothers to be seen.
I have always stopped to talk to mothers with babies, who invariably enjoy talking about their child/children with an interested old grandmother.
My delight increases now, as I find that fathers, once usually out of sorts if they had to perform 'mother's' work, talk to me as happily as mothers do...telling me, with the same pride, about their babies and children. These fathers are enjoying their children in ways which neither my father nor husband enjoyed theirs...tied as they were to
older ideas of 'womens'and 'mens' different areas of child care.
I see fathers and older children riding their bikes together, out on skate boards,just walking,having fun,together. This is a great new development in child care...for mothers, fathers and children. It may lead to less abuse of our most precious Australians.

Reading between the lines, all we need do is get men to behave like most women!
And emoting and sharing as never before.
Men are wired differently, and still need things like phonetics to get the necessary foundation stone to a good education!
Men deal with emotional pain by burying it!
That's their inherent nature!
The rest is just shed/time out/B-B-Q and a few beers with the blokes.
They need time to learn to like and bond with their kids, and then feel the pain of loss and separation much more keenly and intensively than women!
Little wonder most divorced dads have disappeared within 3 years of divorce!
How about we just get off of men's backs and just allow them to be men!
The guy that plays with the kids and then is critiqued for being a big kid!
Or comes home after a 14 hour day, [or sixteen with the commute,] and deadbeat from physical exertion rarely if ever required of a female, save say nurses, and then is asked to take a larger share of the household duties; on top of the eternally undervalued yard, garden duties and home maintenance.
So this is a partnership?
Personally, it's just not so difficult living alone, and missing out on all the never ending demands to be different or more like a girl!
Or in an ever changing landscape and or expectations!
I'd bring back fault and paternity testing as my first order issue, before conceding anything else!
Contracts are just that, and require fidelity as a first order condition; as opposed to playing around and then getting some poor trusting fool to wear the inevitable consequences, and for what?
Discarded like last week's garbage, when his use is ended; or he breaks!?
It's not the chuck that hurts, but the sheer ease with which it's inevitably accomplished!
And don't tell me you're sorry for my pain ladies! It just doesn't wash, but particularly when you don't know me or my circumstances!
I'm not buying any, particularly, when I was never ever missing in action as a dad!
Rebel Rhrosty.

Total fail Peter.

First we definitely don't need more expert advice, particularly if this piece is an example of expert thinking. Most of our problems come from women listening to experts like Dr Spock, & his advice on child raising. Then letting feminists take over the family court, so if a dad ever does some fathering, he is castigated for it, finished the job.

All the expert advice suggesting "quiet time" & other such junk, & stopping dads from applying a little discipline is the trouble. It is painful to see many nice ladies who can't understand how their baby became a useless layabout cetin.

Then we get "Finally, around the world, boys are having difficulties in learning. The educational literature is full of material asking why this is the case: are boys slower than girls? Is school unfair to them? Are we teaching in ways which unconsciously appeal to girls"

No Peter they are testing in ways to suit girls. When instead of a question requiring the student to show some understanding of manipulating numbers or symbols, we get questions in senior math such as "describe a number" it really is too late. Of course this probably comes from very few women who can even do a bit of algebra, let alone real math, so no lady math teachers available.

If we wanted to study literature, we would be in an English class, where the ladies can chatter inanely to their hearts desire.

Men have stepped back for the sake of less argument & nagging. Our ladies, & feminist blokes have shown they have no idea, & we now have the boys they deserve. From what I see around here, it takes about another 10 years after uni, or a trade course, & out of mothers influence, for most boys to finally emerge from this crap, & grow up, well the 60% or so who ever do, that is.

That's the smart ones. The less so rebelled at 15 & have been in & out of the courts, if not prison, ever since.

Thanks Dr Spock & his followers.

'Any article that starts off with a quote from holy Kevin Andrews is always going to be suspect.

actually any article that is criticised from the 'unholy ' Susie must have some value. The Emily's listers and supporters have done great damage to kids and contributed greatly to social disorder. They then blame everyone else and expect the taxpayer to pick up the tab while paying regressive 'social'engineers who have not a clue.

This is pure advertorial.

"When I run workshops on raising boys, I..."

And it follows the classic advertising tradition: first invent a problem (fathers are "missing in action"), then provide a solution (your product).

In support of your product sale, say stuff that is undeniable, but meaningless. For example, "fathers see less of kids after separation and divorce" - erm, possibly, but so too do mothers, do they not, due to the need to share time with the kids between them.

Then generalize like crazy. "Men suffer in their own particular way: sleeplessness, headaches, and depression". Don't bother to provide evidence that this is separation-related - just assert it.

Follow this with more generalization "In many or most examples, there are custody cases. And we've heard that there is a long backlog of custody cases". That's a good one - "many or most". Meaning, we don't actually have a clue, but it sounds impressive.

There's more, of course, in the same vein. All designed to prey on the weak, and part them from some hard-earned money on "workshops" that feed them platitudes such as "we men need to focus more on relationships". Like, that's going to help.

The oddest omission of all, though, is the confession that it has always been this way. Fathers have traditionally been far more absent in family life than present. In both the generation before me, and the one before that, millions of fathers were away - at war, for goodness sake - for years at a time. In Victorian England, children were traditionally seen, but not heard.

I'm not saying that is a good thing, of course. Just that the "problem", as outlined by Mr West, is probably far smaller today than it has ever been in the past.

Ever.

But to be fair, quick-fix snake-oil salesmen have also been around forever.

Yes we fathers are all deficient and need expensive re-educating...

The author oddly returns to Fly In, Fly Out (FIFO) dads again and again. Is that the author's target market?

How about the 95%+ of dads who aren't FIFOs. Or is the author downplaying that 95% because they don't have the well-funded employer who can afford the "workshops on raising boys" that the author appears to be spuiking?

I agree Plantaganet.

95% of fathers wouldn't need any of the author's help anyway, because I think that most of the fathers of our Australian society do a marvelous job raising their children, whether they are with the mothers or not.

It is only the few bitter fathers who haven't moved on from wanting revenge on their ex-partners that let down the side.

Maybe some here should review the male self-harm and suicide numbers before criticising the article.

Since Xmas is nearly upon us again and many dads will not have access to their children,

http://www.dadsindistress.asn.au/www/home/

OTB, I hope you aren't suggesting that all the male suicides and self-harm in this country are linked to being denied access to their children? Because that would be a lie.

By far, alcohol and drug abuse cause the most problems, followed closely by mental health illnesses. All these problems often caused the relationship breakdowns in the first place, and only worsen after the partner leaves them.

In these days of court ordered half and half access to kids following relationship breakdowns, the bulk of the worst affected men are those who have not been allowed access to their kids for a good reason.

Behind every male suicide there are usually at least a few devastated female friends and relatives, so no one can tell me there is some plague of male suicides that no one cares about, because that is just another lie.
We need better mental health facilities and more of them...

Susie, to say half and half is real is a laugh. The hostile environment of the Family Court captured by the Feminist industry are deep in their trenches preventing any meaningful enactment.
It is not worth getting married any more, their are too many Fascist State and private organisations out to crush a Father. Bugger you lot, look after yourselves and no, I will not give you the last life-jacket.

Then don't, McCackie.

>>It is not worth getting married any more<<

That will make two people happier than they would otherwise be.

Seriously though, there is a great deal of hot air on this topic, and very little unbiased, disinterested commentary or statistics. To depict all women as being predatory, greedy and callous, and the court system as implacably biased against men, is as hollow and ridiculous as claiming that all men are oppressed, powerless and disadvantaged.

But hey, if venting against the world in an aimless fashion helps justify your victimhood and massage your apparent low self-esteem, go for it. Just don't expect too much sympathy.

Incidentally, onthebeach, would the dadsindistress organization be referring punters to Mr West's seminars, by any chance?

http://www.dadsindistress.asn.au/www/content/default.aspx?cid=1503&fid=1497

My, that would be an amazing coincidence, wouldn't it.

Pericles, "Incidentally, onthebeach, would the dadsindistress organization be referring punters to Mr West's seminars, by any chance?"

Not so much a coincidence considering there would be few providers.

What alternatives do you suggest to add to the list? Always happy to have more added.

I sense Dog in the Manger in your reply and in some others too. That 'punter' slur for instance is unnecessary.

However, most reasonable people would recognise that men's health initiatives such 'Movember' supported by Beyond Blue's suicide prevention initiative are sorely needed. -Especially in the country where economic and seasonal effects are creating a lot of stress.

A worthwhile article. Of particular value is the well researched fact, known for many years but generally unacknowledged by women, that "The care of boys is generally more difficult and therefore more likely to go wrong... Since most of the growth of the human brain takes place after birth, some early environmental stressors could lead to disadvantage for boys being "wired in"....in boys the formation of secure attachment to a caregiver is more subject than in girls to parental unavailability, insensitivity, or depression."
Rhosty, Has been, JKJ, runner, onthebeach, and McCackle, you say it well. Comments by the females indicate the magnitude of the problem facing men--not only fathers, in a society where women have taken over the education of our boys in the misguided belief that boys and girls do not have vastly different requirements in all aspects of upbringing.

Of course "then don't". Lets cripple the major reason for a large chunk of the most productive people in their most productive time from bothering. More unintended consequences by the experts in the unintended. It is cheap just looking after oneself.

In many ways the anti-male hysteria is a jizya, a vengeful Tax.