For many fathers, the last thing they want to do when they get home from work, is to spend time with the children, playing with them or helping them with their homework. This is often because it is difficult for men to extract themselves mentally, from the stresses they face in their work environments, before they walk into their homes.

The ability to offload the problems of work, 'Like water off a ducks back', is a learned response that sadly, many men never achieve. It is however, an important ability to possess, as it enables us as men to think clearly and to be in the best position emotionally to assist our family, rather than hinder them.

An inability to offload the problems of work, all too often materialises itself in frustration and tiredness. This hamstrings many fathers from being able to give their best, in the home environment. Life is far too short, and our opportunities far to limited, to allow these precious times to go to waste.

All too often when dads walk into the home, the family is waiting to see if they are in a good mood or not, before any 'family time' can begin. If we allow the frustrations of work, or life in general to overcome us, we can begin to send the wrong messages to our family. They may think that 'they are the reason why daddy is sad', and a wedge begin to form in the relationship.

One of the best things we can do as a dad, if we 'lose it and blow our top', is to ask for the children's and their mother's forgiveness, and explain simply that it was not them you were frustrated with. If we can find a way in our heart to leave the cares of work at work, we will avoid many problems in our home, and home after all, is the place where we find our greatest fulfilment.

If we as fathers can show by our own example, by offloading 'the cares of the world', it will go a long way to helping our children to cope with the stresses that they will face in their future.

Warm Regards
John Nolan
Dads Uni

Suggested Action:
Offload the cares of the day on the way home, because your family deserves your very best. Ask for God's help in being free from frustration and stress, and count the blessings you do have. It will cause your focus to be positive rather than negative.

(Matthew 13 v 22)
²²Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

(Matthew 6 v 25)
^25"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

^28"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; ²⁹and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

^31"Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" ³²For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.