Fathers and Parent Education

I just got a call today from a friend who is working on her thesis about fathers and parent education. Of course with my writing on the topic “Boys Will Be Boys” last week, I have been doing a lot of thinking about the male gender in our society.

The idea of the thesis is to find which Parent Education courses are addressing the father specifically. My friend suggests that in most courses fathers are not the focus but an additive to the workshops or courses.

I mentioned my attendance at the Boy Smarts seminar last week and how it got me thinking about boys and men. I'm not always sure that men would go to many of these alone, unless they are single or stay at home dads. It is not to say that the courses are not beneficial to fathers, they are

Any parenting courses/workshops I've attended seem to have more women in attendance and, if there are males, they are usually with their partners. It will be interesting to find out what is out there specifically addressing issues of parenting concerning the father.

I suspect, but you can prove me wrong, that most are generic parenting courses with the primary target being the mothers—who have a tendency to be working on the relationship issues of the family.

If you know of any courses or seminars with some focus on the father, let me know.