Are you the Chief Critical Officer of your home? Is that part of a dad’s job description, right beside financial provider and disciplinarian of last resort?
Be careful. Criticism is good in low doses but be sure to include encouragement.

• A Workplace study by Losada & Heaphy revealed that performance was at its highest when there were 5.6 positive statements for every critical comment.
• Similarly in marriage, John Gottman’s analysis found a ratio of five encouraging statements for every critical remark to be the single biggest determinant of a healthy relationship.

I challenge you to make the move to Chief Encouragement Officer of your home. Work to provide solid encouragement at every opportunity. Criticism is part of life but keep it in the right perspective. By stepping up as CEO of your home, you will be a hero in your children’s eyes.

Use the comment button to share why you think dads are so critical.

What research shows about physical touch

A classic UCLA study found that people need eight to ten touches a day for good emotional health.

How many hugs:

• do you receive in a day?
• do you give to your children?
• do you give your wife?

Whether it is a hug, a pat on the back or a secret handshake,
be sure to get those touches in every day.

As you encourage good emotional health with your children, you will be a hero in their eyes.

Use the comment section to share a story of a memorable hug you received from Dad.

On stage at the MTV Video Music Awards last week, dads got a lesson in abdication of responsibility to be the primary influence in their children’s lives. If Miley Cyrus had grown up less under the influence of the world, Hannah Montana may have matured more gracefully.

Dads must stand in the gap to offset the influence world-encounters are having on their children by providing God-encounters in the home. Here are some tips:

1. Take an inventory of world-encounters influencing your home – messages conveyed through TV/cable channels, internet, radio, texting, magazines, etc.
2. Take an inventory of God-encounters in your home – hugs, dinner together as a family, prayer time, spiritual discussions, family devotion time, Christian radio, etc.
3. Compare the two, discuss them as a family and agree on action to take.

As you stand in the gap against worldly influence by providing God-encounters in your home, you will be a hero in your children’s eyes.

Hero and Dad are not often viewed as synonyms today.
Here is a tip to change that in your home.

Commit to make this the best school year yet by:

1. Having dinner together as a family five times a week, or at least more often than last year;
2. Being available to meet the teachers and help with homework;
3. Putting school and extra-curricular events across the semester on your calendar.

As you commit to being there to talk at dinner, help with school and encourage in activities, it will be a great year and you will be a hero in your children's eyes.