Fatherville

I have seen the movie "Parenthood" many, many times. That is a film about what it is like to be a parent. It is a light-hearted look at parenting, but the underlying message is serious. It is very difficult to be a mother or a father, especially in today's society, where everyone seems to know more about raising your children than you do (and do not hesitate to tell you so). Being a father is especially tough, at least it was (and still is) for me. Today's Family First Site is one that provides excellent resources for anyone who is a father, is going to be a father, or is trying their very best to be a father.

The site is called Fatherville, and was suggested to us by one of our faithful cyber visitors. Fatherville is a website resource. It's for fathers...by fathers. The goal of this site is to encourage men to become better fathers through the exchange of ideas that can take place in an online environment. It's only by relating their own personal tips, tricks and traps that they can learn about some of the pitfalls to be avoided. To be sure parenting is a journey. But if they can help one another along the way then they can become a support and an encouragement for one another.

The site is well structured and organized. There are sections on a variety of dads, such as the new dad, divorced dad, stay-at-home dads, working dads, and special needs dads, among others. The final one mentioned is where I spent most of my time here. As the father of an 18-year old autistic son, I am faced with many challenges that go far beyond normal parenting. Reading through the stories related here gave me some hope, and some ideas on what I can do differently with my son. There is an area for the latest books, gifts for dads, family film fun, in short, just about anything that you could imagine that a dad would be interested in is here.

The strength of this site is that the majority of it is by fathers who "have been there, done that, and got the t-shirt to prove it". (At my house, that shirt is most likely in the wash). But the information here is real information, not someone who thinks that something will work, or should work. Parenting is not a 1+1=2 equation. If it was, life would be a snap. But life isn't. And sites like today's help make the parenting journey a little easier.

http://www.fatherville.com/

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