Features:

Young and Keen: A Christchurch study interviewed Teen Dads, and came up with surprising results. 

. Smacking and the Law: What's all the fuss about with the new no-smacking law?

The Day Everything Changed: This father talks about raising and living with an epileptic child

I've got you under my skin: Dads who have their kids' names etched into their skin.

Book review: Fathers and Sons

In Brief:

Expecting Dads Just 'Warming the Bench'?  A study by Nelson researchers Philip Chapman and David Mitchell asking fathers to comment on antenatal classes found they felt largely ignored.
 The team interviewed more than 100 expecting or new fathers about their experiences of an antenatal education programme in general, and a dads-only group in particular. Overall, the fathers did not feel included in mainstream antenatal programmes, and said they found it difficult to express themselves. However, they strongly supported the experience of a dads-only group, which the researchers introduced at week 5 of the 6-week course. They requested such a group to be held earlier in the programme, and noted that the single most helpful thing is having a dad speaking who's "been there, done that".
 Amongst the areas they wanted addressed in more father-friendly antenatal classes was information about the changing relationship with partner and child. The dads were adamant that they did not want to receive any services for themselves if this meant a reduced service to their partners.
 Father&Child Trust in Christchurch has been facilitating dads-only groups for antenatal classes in the area since 1998, focussing on relationship changes and support needs of new fathers. A provider resource "Dads in Antenatal Classes" is available from the Trust. Ph (03) 372 9140.

As Seen on TV: Father of two Mark Nixon writes about his 5 minutes of fame in TV3’s fatherhood documentary (“Real Dads Revealed”), which screened in December. "The hard work began a full week before the date with the cameras – tidying and cleaning.  Even then, we only managed to do the lounge, leaving the other doors of the home closed to the public record. Dust was eliminated, spiders evacuated and clutter relocated, leaving a sterile room of magazine standard. At 9 o’clock on Sunday morning, as the vacuum cleaner moaned into silence, the film crew of  three were lead into an uncharacteristically serene scene. The 2 ½ and 6 month old daughters were fed, preened and dressed in TV appropriate attire. Even the breakfast dishes were done.
The TV crew looked disappointed by the carefully cultured appearance of perfect domesticity. Their plan was to record us going about our day to day lives.   They convinced us that a shot of the Dad cup feeding my youngest what-had-just-been-frozen breast milk would be a nice interactive segment. However it came at a cost; they wanted to film in the kitchen which hadn’t had the same makeover treatment as the lounge. The solution was to dispatch the team outside to film father-and-child-riding-through-the-bluebells segment while the mother had a frenzied cleaning attack on the kitchen – including the microwave’s interior!
Under the bright glare of  a huge light tent we rambled on about co parenting providing the best of both worlds in that neither parenting or paid work becomes a chore. Meanwhile, the producer probed for evidence of the age-old gender battle; men are ok to play with the kids, but they don’t clean toilets or think of what to have for tea tonight, do they? As the inquisition continued they seemed determined to find a negative or diagnose us as nutters because, as we know, good news doesn’t make good media. In the editing room educational segments littered the floor and entertaining side-shows were retained.  Which brings me to my hint for the day when in front of  the cameras: never say or do anything facetious or funny, because when it comes to the bottom line of television – namely entertainment – it is all that will remain of your four hours of filming and fame.  They even left out the bluebells segment!"


.Chch MPs Start Men’s Health Network: Christchurch’s members of parliament from all parties have met with local men’s groups to discuss New Zealand’s men’s health statistics, and a possible plan for action.
Men are lagging behind women in most health indicators, including life expectancy, suicide, cardiovascular diseases, sleeping disorders, and gender-related cancers. Yet while there are national policies for women’s health, there are none for men.
Christchurch Central Member of Parliament Tim Barnett had invited his colleagues after having been alerted to the problems during the last election campaign. The group has met three times so far.