June 18, 2023
A perpetual wish of LifeWays is to have more fathers or men join our trainings or courses, and child-care programs. We have such a deep appreciation and love of what fathers and men bring to the task of raising children. Luckily, the value given to fatherhood seems to be increasingly acknowledged by society at large, so our hopes are up!
It seems funny to me that fatherhood (or motherhood) would need to be studied for its value, when I hold such wonderful memories of my own father. He has been generous with his affection and verbally expressed his love through all of my life. When we were young, he was playful and silly: pretending to pick us up by our noses, turn us upside down to “walk” on the ceiling, or wrestling with us. He had his own variety of bad dad jokes that we lovingly coined “LMH” or “Lame Muller Humor” (referencing our last name). He would let us help build and fix things around the house, or in his workshop in the garage. He (and my mom) took us on hikes through the wilder parts of the city’s creeks and parks, to explore and climb and find an intimate connection with the natural world.
As I grew older, he compassionately listened to my emotional struggles. Even after long days of work, he stayed up with my young adolescent self trying to make sense of the injustices of the world. I would much later come to recognize how incredibly important these late night sessions would be for both my understanding of the world and the development of my passion and drive to seek ever-bigger and positive changes to it.
His contributions to my life are common among many fathers, and reflected in recent studies*. Their results are of no surprise to me. My father– all fathers– are such an integral and profoundly important part of who we are and what we become. Yet, I am grateful for the mounting evidence they give to this point.
Today, we give our deepest thanks to engaged fathers everywhere, and we welcome you (we eagerly invite you!) all to become a part of the LifeWays community. Bring your rough play and silliness, your discipline and sense of devotion… All, ALL that is wonderful and so valuable about being a dad! Join one of our training sessions and take your engagement with fatherhood to a deeper level of intention, consciousness and joy!
With Love and Gratitude,
* If you would like to learn about some of these recent studies on fatherhood, you are welcome to read a couple of articles that I found with a quick Google search on the topic. Please note that while citing these specific articles, we are not endorsing any of the websites to which they are connected.
The Encouraging Science of Fatherhood & the “Father Effect”
The Power of Father Involvement in Early Childhood Development
Ten Facts About Father Engagement
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