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Fatherhood: a look to Past, Present and Future Report for the Fathers Conference in Vancouver 3-4 October 2025, Canada. Written by Fabio Barzagli, founder of WWW.PATERNITA.INFO/FATHERHOOD - The main italian site for Fatherhood, Manhood and Childhood. Part I: Who am I? Dear Partecipants, First of all sorry for my bad english. I'm 50 and since 2003 I run www.Paternita.info the biggest Italian site about Fatherhood, Manhood and Childhood. The site is partly translated in english thanks to some friends. Since child, living in the marvellous tuscany mountains, I was curious about nature and the mystery of Life, I was both Spiritual and Scientist and I was asking myself the reason We're here on this planet and what's our main mission. I come from a humble family I was lucky in childhood because I had a dad and mom. My father was a man of action and just a few words.. so It took me a lot to understand Him and understand masculinity. I am a musician, multimedia author and books writer. Philosophy is important like psychology for me. I experienced divorce at 19 (my parents) and also in adult age (I lost my first daughter at 29 for the PAS, parental alienation syndrome). During these 20 years of social activity I promoted family culture and awareness through books, events, laws, web and mass media, also I offered life coach free support for fathers, children and depressed people (me too I passed depression in 2018, healing 3 years later). Part II: Why to Be a Father So, since lot of time, 80% of my day is spent in free cultural and charity activities toward my Community. Why do I help people for free? Because I'm a Father. While Mom is focused on her children, her husband, family and house, the Father is also focused "outside" He's not only the Father of his children but He is father to all children of the Community. This is the right point of view as a Father, this is our mission. A Father is a philosopher, a guide about rationality and instinct, a spiritual anchoring. Let's imagine a Father like a rock in a field full of grass, a windy place where people need to find a fixed point to navigate healthy and meaningful during life. I know it's hard, but We can call ourselves Men.. only if We help youngs to become Men too. But how can I be a strong Father in difficult times? How can I be always sure of my thoughts, my believes? Well.. You have to study a lot, experience a lot, have good masters, that's the secret, you have to believe in yourself, be humble, dreamer and concrete at the same time. You have to learn about The Line of Life: just imagine an endless Line.. COMING TO US from our fathers, ancestors, and CONTINUING AFTER US toward our children and descendents. As Dads We're there in the Middle of eternity, in the Middle of the endless Line of Humanity.. and We have to do our part, our piece of road, We can make the difference. While our body dies.. our spirit can be immortal through our sons and descendents. Also I can assure you how beautiful is going to sleep, serenely, because We did the "right thing" during the day, We did the best effort for us and for the Community. It's not important if you believe in God, Buddha, Allah, the Cosmos, Life or Complexity. Of course, We all know, as Fathers, that We are little ants in front of the Universe and We've to humbly learn something about this Entity, this wide Knowledge, to hope for a good life, an honored life, to teach something to our neighbour. Part III: Problems in West "Modern" Countries Coming to our days We can observe We're not very happy even if We're rich, We own thousand objects, We don't lack of food as in the past (on the opposite We eat too much! and We're overweight). I could say: material wellness "replaced" spiritual wellness. You just need to go in Asia or Africa to see how much happier are children and adults even if they're very poor, they die earlier, they have no medicines, the can eat 1-2 times a day if lucky. But here in Europe and USA We're no more happy like in the past. One person on two suffer of "stress", one person on five suffer of "depression" and takes medicines or antidepressants, World Health Organization tells us anxiety and depression are the first cause of disability since 2020. The main reasons of this mess are: While during agriculture times dads worked and lived in the family, during industrial period they moved to a factory far from the family, they had no more time, opportunity and energies to act the role of Father and Husband. Another bad "hit" to Fatherhood and Family was during the 1900 World Wars where million children became orphans and "the line of fatherhood knowledge transmission" was broken. The final "hit" was given from '68 ideological revolution. During '68 We decided that family was not so important, education was not so important, obligations and laws were not so important, We started giving Freedom without Limits (very silly), human rights without human obligations. Words and ideologies like libertarianism, self-determination, relativism, individualism, feminism, destroyed all our moral basements, deleted our roots and healthy traditions. We forgot the "important message" of our fathers and ancestors who gave us Democracy and Constitutions: "We born as animals, We become Humans only if We are educated in a Family." Yes.. after '68 We saw the decline of western world, We saw the decline of mental wellness of western people, We discover that School and Government CAN'T SUBSTITUTE the Family to educate our children to morality and mental sanity. The family is the only natural educational institute since millions years, We've to go back to Family centered societies if We want to be happy and healthy again. Ending Words I stop here. I wish to all men and women to find their deepest genuine identity. Men and Women need to come back valorizing their natural biological differences, to cooperate for a better Family. We've to offer to our children a strong, balanced, happy family to give them a bright and sustainable future. Words and Written Constitutions are not important if We don't GIVE THE EXAMPLE to our children. So the best We can do is to be happy as men and women, to be in a strong couple relationship. We need to be honest, brave, to eat and sleep healthy, to make exercise, to make charity activities toward unlucky people, to be positive and philanthropist (stopping being always angry and misanthrope) We've to take care of our health because We CAN'T help anyone if We are not able to help and guide ourself. As Men We are Captains of the Ship and We've to choose simple and humble women who will support us in our hard mission. << GO BACK |