This is for every father who wishes he could do better.
Who’s worried he’s failing his children.
Who wants to make some changes.
Who knows the clock is ticking.
What is Intentional Fathering?
Intentional Fathering is the deliberate, daily practice of fatherhood habits by men who want to do better. The habits I invite you to work on are culled from years of interviews with good fathers, about the behaviors they believe helped them support and build up their children.
I don’t claim to know all the secrets of good parenting, or even to be a very good father myself. The truth is that I struggle. I know many other fathers who struggle as well. We might as well struggle alongside one another, and learn, as best we can, from the men who’ve gone before us.
The way it works is simple: Focus on a habit a week. What that means in practice is that each day you try to take an action that exemplifies that week’s habit. After seven days of striving at that habit, you move on to the next one. Once you reach the last habit, you start over again.
None of it is complicated, and nobody is asking you to transform yourself in a day. In fact, the reason we work on habits is because we can’t be transformed in a day. All any of us expects from himself is to use this day, this one we’re in right now, to do something worthwhile. Something that redeems our failings just a little bit. That makes us more like the fathers we wish we could be.
If you’d like to hear more as we develop this site, and in particular reach our long-term goal of building an app and other tools to help prompt participating fathers to work on their habits every day, you can sign up to receive occasional emails. You’ll also get a short meditation every couple of weeks on some aspect of fatherhood. If you don’t like what you get, you can always opt out.
In addition to the habits and fatherhood meditations sections, we’re building a DIY section, filled with suggestions for things you can do with your children based on how much time you have to spend. Even if you’ve only got five minutes to practice Intentional Fathering today, there’s something you can do that matters.
I hope you’ll spend some time here, and be encouraged. And if you’ve got ideas on how to improve what we’re offering, I’d love to hear from you.
