The first story occurred recently when a father was talking about his 5 year old son with Autism. He was mentioning some of the hardships he faces, such as other kids teasing his son. For example, when his son gets excited or scared he shakes his arms.  Another father then joined the conversation mentioning he has a 20 year old son with Autism. In a comforting way, he mentioned that his son still shakes his arms as well, but his true friends have stayed with him and accept him for who he is. This gentleman even provided the other father with some resources and programs available for children with Autism.  It was a heartwarming moment.

The second story comes from the previous round of the program from earlier this year. One of the fathers had mentioned in an early session that he was very passive and discouraged about visitation and custody of his daughter.  He was a benevolent and loving person and father, but did not have the will to fight a legal battle with his ex-wife. Over the course of the next few sessions, each of the other fathers contributed the knowledge they had to the group, and had encouraged this gentleman to see his daughter and that he was within his rights to ask for more custody.  Furthermore, that his ex-wife was taking advantage by moving out of the city. The other members encouraged him that he had rights. One day he mentioned he had spent a weekend with his daughter and he fed her well and took her to the park and to meet some of his friends. Finally, this gentleman unexpectedly said that thanks to the other fathers, he had decided he would seek his old lawyer for legal advice and would fight to see his daughter.  He even reached out to his ex-wife to tell her this, and to his surprise, she was okay with it.

Calgary Edmonton