I have to say that I, like many other clients of the Australia Family Law system feel as though I need to make comment, and ask that others do the same. I might add that I make my comments by assessing the Family policies in other countries, not only the West, but places where I have lived and where I have observed very strong family units. In all cases there is no family interference by Government and life for all, including kids seem normal to me. Places where all family problems, if there are any, are resolved my the elders.

In Australia the Attorney general is boasting about all his billion dollar adjustments to the already failed system where divorce is epidemic, and children disadvantaged by being raised by mostly women. Jails are being expanded by State Governments to keep pace with divorce and broken families, but not necessarily with population expansion which appears stagnant (I wonder why?). When considering that suicide is epidemic amongst males loosing particularly their kids, and for males alone greater than the National road toll, kids being raised without fathers, masculinity something forgotten since John Wayne stopped living on TV and the big screen, are we on the right track?

Do women now want lapdogs and not Men as we once knew them? Has feminism driven Government policies past a natural way of maintaining the family unit? Has the man being usually the family head, including all the responsibilities that go with it, a thing of the past in Australia?

Poncan: << Has (sic) the man being usually the family head, including all the responsibilities that go with it, a thing of the past in Australia? >>

Yes. Deal with it.

CJ Morgan: "Yes. Deal with it."

Sadly, it won't be me or the OP who has to "deal with it", but the dysfunctional society that my children will inherit from my generation, thanks to short-sighted extremists being allowed to set the agenda. My son is 10 and my daughter is 12. She is growing up in a world in which she will be considered among the fortunate few if she marries and has children and actually manages to stay married long enough to raise them. She at least can anticipate that the Government will "hound the father to the grave" (as Joe Hockey said) to pay for them, while he can look forward to a life in which he will be one of the "hounded" and will in all probability have to fight every step of the way to even have any contact with them if the mother chooses otherwise.

How should they "deal with" that?

CJ ...who's marvellous track record is something we can all envy....(cough) presents himself with such finality and firmness.. after all.. he is an authority on stable marriage.

PONCAN.. we have fallen victim to 'MIUAUG'.... make it up as you go...

each person has their own 'truth'..and if it works for them.. then its valid..

The only problem is when you find 2 people with different versions of 'truth' which are in conflict.

Then..you end up like CJ... ambittered..hysterical.. racist.. anti Austrlaian and disillusioned... and who's primary delight in life now is in attacking those who recognize his condition.

The idea that the man is the head of the family... works and works well.. when the women comes into a marraige with that conviction, and has only given herself to a man she trusts to fulfill his obligations and duty faithfully.

If she cannot or will not embrace such a scenario.. then she marries someone like CJ.. and that'll work... until she and he find they suddenly have 'irreconcilable differences'....where of course.. being the 'independant woman' that she is.. she then moves to the next bus stop of her choice.

Aaah.. 'choice'.. 'independance'.. what wonderful qualities.

Pon.. the best solution to what you described is to be part of a community which not only shares those values you lament..but constantly encourages it's members to be strong in them.

It's called 'Your Local Church'.....(unless of course it happens to be one infected with post modern relativistic theology)

There are many people today who're predicting
the end of the family system as we know it.

The family it's argued, is breaking down,
the victim of moral decay, sexual permissiveness,
changing gender roles, or irresistible social
forces.

These predictions are heard in all industrialized
societies.

Is the family threatened with
collapse, or can it thrive under the changing social
conditions of the modern world?

I believe that it can thrive. I believe that despite
the number of existing alternatives to traditional
marriage and family arrangements, the great majority
of Australians will continue to marry to legitimise
any offspring. And, the family unit will be part of a
wider network of relatives, or kin.

Families will continue to consist of a relatively
permanent group whose members are related by ancestry, marriage,
or adoption, who live together and form an economic unit,
and whose adult members assume responsibility for the young.

Our ideas of what exactly is a family -has in the past been
based on the middle-class "ideal" family so relentlessly
portrayed in TV commercials, one that consists of a
husband, a wife, and their dependent children. This
particular pattern is far from typical.

A more accurate portrait must take into account the many
different forms that have existed and still exist in
this country (and in other cultures).

Antiseptic: << How should they "deal with" that? >>

Unfortunately for some, kids don't get to pick their parents. I guess yours will have to somehow transcend the bitter and twisted example presented by their father and try and find life partners with whom they can have equal and adult relationships.

Alternatively, your son could follow Boazycrap's example and go and find himself a tribal woman from Borneo who doesn't know any better, while your daughter could take Boazycrap's advice and join some kind of weird religious sect like that to which he belongs.

Face it guys, patriarchy has well and truly passed its use-by date in our society. Like I said, deal with it.