Over the weekend, I was able to attend the last day of the seventh World Congress of Families. Founded in the late nineties, the congress seeks to respond to the anti-family modes of thought that dominate the West with a coming together of international pro-family organisations and activists.

I would have loved to get a glimpse of every session over the three days, but constraints of time (and matter) didn’t allow this. Of the speakers and presentations that I did see however, I came away impressed by the array of ways in which the family can be supported in society.

Adoptive father of three and GFC Foundation president, Stan Swim, spoke of how adoption should answer a child’s need for family, and not the couple’s desire for a child. He spoke eloquently and from the heart, stressing the need for the child’s well-being to always be the main goal… click here to read whole article and make comments

Popular culture that conveys the modern family likes to depict single-parent households, homosexual couples, the younger woman with the much older man, and so on. More recently, another "character" has been added into the mix - the stay-at-home dad, and not only as a means for comedic respite. One only needs to look at the success of current Australian TV show House Husbands to see that this a growing trend.

These dads may still make up the minority but as the reports show, numbers are definitely on the rise. A recent article points out that the Australian Bureau of Statistics lists 39,300 stay-at-home dads. I’m actually quite surprised at this number, even with 426,000 stay-at-home mums still in the picture. It makes sense though, with the breaking down of traditional roles and women becoming more career-driven.

The concept of stay-at-home has been left rather unexplored until recently, and so it still seems a… click here to read whole article and make comments

Research shows that a record two-thirds of new mums in the US are college-educated, indicating a decades-long rise in the educational levels of women. In 2011, 34% of mothers had a high school diploma or less, and only 14% lacked a high school diploma.

I think that this is great news. It might be unpaid, but motherhood has got to be amongst the most important of jobs (if not the most important, in my opinion). And what this research indicates is that more educated women are making the choice to have kids.

I hear a lot of people lamenting women who get a degree and then become stay-at-home mums, saying that this decision is a waste of an education. I (massively) beg to differ. Why shouldn’t women who are intelligent use their brains to raise the next generation of thinkers and leaders?  Should they only lend their brains to other activities?

In the past week, mother Brenda Heist reappeared, 11 years after going missing. She was last seen by her then-young kids when she dropped them off at their Pennsylvania school. Just coming out of a marriage breakdown, she had just been told that her application for financial aid had been denied. According to Brenda, she was crying in a park when she met hitch-hikers who asked her to join them on their way to Florida and, on a whim, she accepted. 

Now she has told police that she did it because she was stressed.

Sad and shocking as it is, I immediately dismissed it as a rare case. But according to an article by Peggy Drexler (author of Our Fathers, Ourselves: Daughters, Fathers, and the Changing American Family and assistant professor of psychology at Cornell University), this is actually becoming a bit of an alarming trend. While she admits that there are… click here to read whole article and make comments

Over the last couple of days, the news has been dominated by the story of the three women abducted in Cleveland between 2002 and 2004. And what a story! While their discovery is definitely a cause for celebration, I can’t help but think about how it would have been for their families.

The grief of having a missing person in your family is hard to imagine. There wouldn’t be any closure, not knowing whether your loved one was dead or alive. It would feel so bizarre to go on with everyday activities after such an event!

According to reports, Amanda Berry was abducted on the way to her own 17th birthday party. Gina DeJesus was just on her way home from school, and Michelle Knight was last seen at her cousin’s house. Such normal activities, that ended up having such a huge unforeseen cost.

I can’t even try to comprehend what… click here to read whole article and make comments

As it turns out, despite the constant advances of women towards “having it all”, we have a while to go yet. According to Sarah Elizabeth Richards, we women still haven’t quite embraced the ability to control when we have children. Enter egg freezing.

I just read her article in the Wall Street Journal, titled “Why I Froze My Eggs (And You Should, Too)”. Needless to say, I am now more convinced than ever of why this will never be an option.

Richards’ argument stresses the notion of ultimate control of her body. While I hate to be a party pooper, I should point out that this is flawed. Women will never be able to completely control when they have children. Ever heard of menopause? Even with our society’s preoccupation for controlling everything, it’s just impossible. You may have your 25 year old egg in the freezer, but your 60 year old… click here to read whole article and make comments

The Sex Education Forum (SEF) in the UK has been reported this week as advising that sex education is currently at a poor standard. It believes that while more time should be given to the subject, it is also important to introduce porn into the curriculum, along with the understanding that it is not all bad.

I find it interesting that the SEF has been careful with its language, saying that porn “can” be a positive thing. Note this hesitant way of putting it. But I guess they should cover themselves, since the material they’re promoting is undeniably degrading to women.

Some might say that kids are bound to stumble across porn early on anyway, so why not educate them on it? I can’t disagree with the early part. But showing it in schools is bound to condone it in the eyes of kids, and confuse their natural aversion.

There is… click here to read whole article and make comments

A popular article in the New York Times suggests that soaring figures for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be inflated by something as simple as poor sleep. New York University psychiatry professor Vatsal G. Thakkar picks up on the recent news about the surging number of diagnoses of ADHD among children. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 11 percent of school-age children have now received a diagnosis of the condition. Among high school aged boys the figure is around 20 percent.

A couple of weeks ago I discussed some of the reasons being advanced -- and one of my own (more or less). Dr Thakkar adds another: maybe some of it is not ADHD but the result of a chronic deficit of sleep -- particularly the deep variety he calls “delta sleep”. Insomnia doesn’t necessarily turn you into a zombie by day:

For some… click here to read whole article and make comments

Whenever I hear young girls say that they hope to be models one day, I feel a bit sad. Not because it can never be a worthy profession, but because the reality of the industry means that they will most probably fall prey to deep insecurities, and take on shoots that aim to strip them of their dignity.

These issues came to light in the news a few days ago, when a former Victoria's Secret Angel opened up about what made her quit her highly-sought after modelling job. Kylie Bisutti landed the gig when she was just 19, but it all went downhill when photos from a bikini shoot ended up on a porn site and a photographer confirmed her concerns. 

"That's when it hit me," she was reported as saying. "I was being paid to strip down and pose provocatively to titillate men. It wasn't about modelling clothes anymore; I felt… click here to read whole article and make comments

Does sex still sell? Apparently not, to young women in 2013.

Australian young women's magazine Cleo has dropped sex from the cover of its magazine, due to its readership being more conservative than previous generations.

In this day and age? All the sex we are sold would tell us the contrary.

But according to research done by Bauer Media, sex isn't a selling point for young women anymore.

1500 girls aged 14-26 were interviewed across Australia over a three-month period, through video diaries and focus groups. Results from the study found that 69% per cent are living at home with their parents, 41% of total respondents have not had sex and only 7% per cent have had a one-night stand in the past six months. 66% per cent of participants are single.

This has a lot to do with finances - increasing rents and costs of living mean that young people are living with their parents… click here to read whole article and make comments