This story from Warwick Marsh is great - it is good to read some good news stories. He chose to be there for his children than to think of merely what was his own selfish idea - suicide is NEVER a good idea, no matter how bleak things seem to be. It is great to read of somebody like Warwick Marsh who loves children and loves fathers loving their children.

Eyeinthesky >". Since the 1960s the radical feminists have poisoned our society with their social engineering agendas and in doing so have destroyed many of the traditional values which held a family together. The result is what you see around you today."

Even though feminism is supposed to have taken over the world, why is it that women are still blamed for everything? Crime, sexual abuse, suicides, and murders perpetrated by men are all seen as 'driven to it by women' by some men in our society.

For God's sake, why doesn't everyone just take responsibility for their own actions?

I am not a man hater or a feminist and in fact I am very happy with the men in my life because my husband, father, and brothers are all good law abiding citizens and fathers.

The real problems I have are with the poor children of our society who are being used as pawns between warring men and women.

I won't shut up until I see a better outcome for children.
If that makes me a rabid feminist in some peoples eyes, well that is their problem.

SUZEONLINE.
I don't recall calling YOU a man hater or a feminist. As regards the abuse of children the facts are that sexual abuse is the only area where the number of male/father perpetrators are greater than the number of females/mothers. In all other areas including child neglect, infanticide and child murder the number of mother perpetrators is very significantly higher than the number of father perpetrators and i challenge you to provide genuine proof to the contrary. Like you i am very happy with the women in my life, my beautiful daughter is very well aware of the importance of a loving father in a childs life,and the difference i made to her own life. My lovely new fiancee who went through 19 years of an abusive marriage herself now knows what it is like to have a good supportive partner in her life. When i met her she was that downtrodden she wouldn't even look me in the eye, she does now. I had a lot of support from women during my custody battle, many were thoroughly disgusted at the anti father bias in the system and what i had to go through to get some measure of justice for my daughter. As regards people being responsible for their own actions, despite all the abuse and neglect she put my daughter through, her mother was NEVER held accountable for her actions, in fact she was rewarded for the abuse and neglect of our daughter, by the powers that be recommending that my daughter stay there for 3 years. I however am completely prepared to be accountable for mine. There IS a direct correlation between the rise of radical feminism and the start of the breakdown of traditional family values in the 60s and the rise in drug use and violence in our society which started at exactly that time in history, if you can't even understand history itself then that is your problem.

I really wanted to enjoy this essay, because we don't get enough articles on OLO that question and challenge our society's distancing of men from their children. (I suspect that's not OLO's fault. Just a lack of men willing to do the challenging, when it's so much easier to take cheap shots at feminism.)

However, this essay really got up my nose, as it came across to me as another one of those overly sentimental tropes about how children are there to give nourishment and meaning to the lives of their parents.

Suzeonline

'These problems are certainly not the sole domain of fatherless households. If that were so, would we not have had an outbreak of lawlessness after the World Wars, when there were so many Fathers killed on the battlefields?'

Exactly. Another one of those little double standards we've come to know and love. When it comes to war, sport and business, it's fine for a father to shoot through on his parental responsibilities for months and/or years at a time, because a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do.

Ditto, all those idolised cricketers and other sports jocks who spend much the year chasing balls around in faraway countries, while their children mainly get to watch them on tellie. Ditto, politicians, CEOs and all those other Type A workaholics who tell themselves that they are working their 90-hour weeks and spending their otherwise quality family time nursing laptops in business class.

This irony was also lost on John Howard when he condemned the growing epidemic of fatherless sons in his announcement on shared-parenting legislation. The fact that his own sons probably hardly ever saw him during his Prime Ministerial years, or the fact that a lot of daughters are growing up fatherless as well, obviously didn't influence his government's decision. But then, he just left all that to Janet. That's what wives are for.

“Saved through their love for their children.” I thought the idea was that fathers sustain their children, rather than the other way around. At least, that’s how my father saw it.

The use of the word “saved” is fairly loaded here. The incident described sounds more to me like being “saved” by an attack of common sense, but of course, that’s not nearly as romantic, or rhetorically useful, as being saved by love for one’s offspring.

In any event, deciding not to murder your child and kill yourself doesn’t sound particularly special to me. We’re all walking talking breathing evidence that fathers overcome these urges every day.

Curious that five of the Marsh barrackers above (felix_fortunatus, Jason Thompson, Wally32, cmpmal, Late30sMum) have signed on to OLO in the last 36 hours, specifically to engage in a bit of p1ssing in Warwick’s pocket.

It’s worth remembering what our Federal Health Minister said about Warwick Marsh’s writings last November: “These comments, relating in the main to homosexuality, are unacceptable and repugnant.” http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24711420-29277,00.html

It would be much easier to endorse Marsh’s sentiments about love and fatherhood if fewer of his organisation’s tax-deductible resources were directed against fathers who happen to be gay.

Wow, all the deliciously baiting comments above.

What would happen if we simply ignored them all and celebrated fathers anyway rather than denigrating straight or gay males, assassinating Marsh, or promoting folklore about abusive dads.

No. This the eve before Fathers Day I'd like to say this-

"happy fathers day to all the wonderful loving fathers in the country!"

Lets just ignore the haters above for just 24hrs. ;-)

Paul G.