It’s been a long, hard day at work. You want to come home and just relax and have fun with your kids. You don’t want to deal with discipline. But Mom has had the children for most of the day and she’s tired of the fighting and bickering. So she starts to discipline and wants you to help. This is not your idea of unwinding.

So what do you do? Support her. Absolutely. Children need a unified front from parents, and when Dad is viewed as the Softie, it makes Mom look like the Bad Guy and makes her job so much more difficult. And marital tension increases dramatically. If you have an issue with the way Mom is disciplining, wait to talk to her about it after the children go to bed. Short term, backing up your wife will be extra work. But long term it will be well worth it as your children will be unable to pit Mom and Dad against each other. The softer you are on discipline now, the harder it will be for your family. ... read more >>

Have you realized the most important thing in a young girl’s life? It is her FATHER!

A father carves the way for their daughter’s lives, and when a father strengthens and rebuilds his bond with his daughter, it shapes her life and his for the better. But how ever much a father loves his daughter if he doesn’t realize what a girl child usually expects of him, his relationship would be strained.

Girls seek for a sense of protection and safety from their fathers. They feel that fathers should be available when needed. The real value of a father in a girl’s life is that it is from fathers that girls learn about males in the world; ... read more >>

There have been countless debates about how to help your kids become happy, healthy, successful people in their own lives. And one effective method of preparing them for their own lives is to give them a heavy dose of the word that not enough kids are getting today. The word?

“No!”

All of you deal with a certain amount of frustration in your everyday adult lives. You’re frustrated at your jobs, in your relationships, and by circumstances that you have no control over. Over time you learn to handle frustration better and to turn it into challenges and opportunities that you can work through.

People who can handle frustration successfully tend to have happier and more successful lives. They learn to be resilient and to appreciate what they’ve accomplished and what they’ve received.

How about your kids? ... read more >>

Well nappy rash isn’t a very aesthetic looking thing and the only problem being it must be painful rubbing up against her skin and the nappy! So we have a few options, and since we found out that Pyper like most little people get nappy rash.

We had a product called sudocream and this is an zinc based product that treats the affected area well ,but we still found after a few times it still didn’t clear up the infected area.

But we came across a new Nappy rash cream called Weleda Nappy Rash Relief Cream, of which it has worked a treat.

It’s hard to give it a real rating with pros and cons but compared to Bayer Bepanthum which is also another relief cream, then it’s fantastic. ... read more >>

Do you ever find that despite best efforts to contain things there is a distinct "toilet" smell lingering after you've changed your baby? This is particularly unpleasant when you change your baby in the nursery, say just before you put them to bed and they are now in that room for the rest of the night?

Well - there is a REALLY great solution (i.e. other than burning a match - which you should probably never do in the nursery). Here's the DIYFather approach to dealing with bad smells in the nursery. Get a small bowl (just about any bowl will do), put a squirt of your favourite shower gel, scented bath or liquid soap in it and fill it with hot water from the tap (not boiling water - just hot). Put it in the room (well away from your child or electric appliances) and close the door. After 5 minutes you should have a nice smelling room. RESULT! ... read more >>

Even when you've shown your little crawler or walker hot to go up or down the stairs it's still important to secure them. It's one thing to watch your toddler climb up or down stairs with you behind them ready to step in as soon as they look like they are about to fall but another thing altogether to let them do this by themselves. So make sure you've got safety gates in place and don't remove them too early.

There are lots of baby product brands who offer safety gates such as Kidco Baby Gates, Evenflo, Cardinal, Guardian Angel, Dreambaby and many others. So there's bound to be a selection of gates at your local baby store. Make sure you measure the width of your staircase (wall to wall) before you go out to buy them. When I went to buy ours I got the measurement completely wrong and we had to go back for an extension. ... read more >>

Part 2 of my things that Pyper doesn't like (the first one was cutting her nails) is that she hates what we have to do several times a day ... you guessed it ... changing her!

Everyday when we know that Pyper needs to be changed its a paper, scissors, rock moment as to who changes her. It's not the smell that makes it tricky but also that she just hates having her nappy changed. She arches her back and then throws her head back. This happens every time we change her, and so the only thing we can do is to distract her with something like one of her favourite dolls or a new thing she hasn't seen before. But this doesn't always work as we might be out or not have her favourite doll with us.

Sometimes it's just a two-person job no matter what (which can be problematic). So my suggestions are to make sure you are ready to go and have everything in hand and also to make sure you have a little treat or toy that your baby loves. ... read more >>

by Bruce Linton, Ph.D.

Congratulations you have made it to month two of fatherhood. The first month of fatherhood is occupied by adjusting to your new situation. The changes in your schedule and routines, settling into how and when your baby needs to be fed, changing diapers and giving baths, trying to get enough sleep, communicating with your wife in your new roles as parents.

Many new fathers comment on how wonderful and difficult that first month is. Your baby is still small and helpless but by the second month you may feel a difference as you hold him. He may seem to be more of a person. ... read more >>

Every couple of days Pyper has a cut on her face, and so the thought of trying to cut her fingernails would send her through the roof! And then we would think "oh no not another battle", as her hands would fly around. It got a lot worse before it got better so what we thought we would do is to basically try something new.

Everytime we need to cut her fingernails which is usually once a week, we used to wait until she was feeding so it's a lot easier than holding her hands and trying to cut them straight off the bat. However that way she's mostly interested drinking her bottle and not insterested in having her nails cut. So what to do? Fortunately I've come across this little video at about.com which I found quite useful. Check it out: ... read more >>

by Bruce Linton, Ph.D.

Welcome to your first month of fatherhood! You have arrived home from the hospital proud, excited and perhaps a bit exhausted from the experience of childbirth. What's next?

Preparing for birth is all consuming and most expectant fathers don't think too much about what happens after they get home with their wife and new baby. The birth experience creates intense emotions. You have a new sense of yourself. You are not just a man, but a father! The pregnancy and birth are the beginning of a lifelong journey of becoming a parent and being a dad. You will need the next few months, perhaps the whole next year, to comprehend your new role. ... read more >>