Almost half UK children rarely see separated father

Almost half of all children from separated families in a UK survey did not see their father once last year, according to this story in The Guardian. The disturbing finding is included in a report on measures planned by the British government to encourage fathers to get more involved with their children. My first reaction on seeing this story was, "Oh no, here we go preaching at fathers again". That reaction lasted until I got to the mention of the lack of contact between many children and their separated fathers. The government is planning the introduction of courses to encourage "disengaged fathers" to play a bigger role in their children's upbringing.

Irishmen still hold top jobs though more women are qualified, says OECD

Some 12pc of Irish working men are likely to be in the position of manager, compared to 9pc or less for women, though more women employees (25 per cent) are likely to have professional qualifications than men (15 per cent), says this story in the Irish Independent on a new report from the OECD. See also these earlier entries Is the future female? and Swedish women to overtake men.....

Guys: why hide from Karen?

Speaking to students at a seminar on stress at the Law School attached to the Law Society in Dublin last night, I was struck by the absence of men in the attendance. The student body is made up of roughly equal proportions of men and women but the attendance was over 90 per cent female. That men experience stress at least as much as women is obvious but we still seem less willing to come out of the woodwork and say so. Anyway, we had a valuable evening with Karen Ward (right), a holistic therapist who runs the Rhiannon Clinic in Dublin and who is also a presenter on RTE's Health Squad who spoke on nutrition and exercise; with Brother Richard Hendrick, a Capuchin Friar working in Dublin in the areas of youth ministry, meditation and holistic health; and myself on mindfulness and the pressures we impose on ourselves through unrealistic expectations. So expect the next wave of female lawyers to be more chilled out than their male colleagues.....

More Irish divorces, separations settled amicably than expected, report finds

Ninety per cent of divorces and judicial separations in Ireland are settled without a court battle, according to a report, Family Law Matters (download here) by Dr Carol Coulter (right) for the Courts Service. The finding is more positive than had been expected. In almost all cases, whether agreed or contested, custody of children is awarded jointly, with the care of the children usually going to the mother. Dr Coulter is also Legal Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times.....

Teens gain from contact with out-of-home Dads

Teenages whose parents don't live together are less likely to get into trouble with the law if their fathers stay involved with them, according to this story on Medical News Today.....

Gay? What's the big deal?

It didn't bother David's dad, Rod; nor Sam's mum, Debbie, says this story in The Guardian. But many young gay people still find themselves cut off from their families after they come out....

Viagra without prescription in Manchester but is it worth it?

Viagra is now available without prescription from Boots outlets in Manchester, according to this story from Malehealth. But in addition to a consultation with their pharmacist, "your blood pressure and cholesterol levels will be measured and you’ll have to fill in a questionnaire to ensure you don't have any health conditions that would make the drug dangerous," it says. "Oh yes, and you’ll need to be aged 30 to 64." And for a repeat prescription you'll have to talk to a BUPA doctor. Sounds like it would be less embarrassing and cheaper to just go to your GP in the first place.....

World's oldest man never married

The world's oldest man, 115-year-old Hryhory Nestor who lives in Ukraine, attributes his longevity to the fact that he never married, according to this story in The Guardian. "I liked my freedom. I would spend my time with one girl and then another. And then I would go off somewhere with the guys," he told Reuters.....

Finally! An explanation for that contrary streak

Why do we so readily oppose our spouses' wishes? asks this story on PsychCentral. The answer is "Reactance." It appears we're programmed to oppose the wishes of our nearest and dearest to preserve our autonomy, even when it's bad for us. The story is couched in terms which suggest reactance is mainly a male trait but I totally disagree - if that' s not too reactive of me.....

Want to make 'em sweet? Sweat!

Men's sweat can elevate women's hormones and improve their mood and physical and mental arousal, according to a study in the Journal of Neuroscience, reported in this story on irishhealth.com. Gee, why wash?.....

Dads influence daughters' eating behaviours

Fathers who worry excessively about their own weight or body shape could spark eating disorders in their daughters according to this report on irishhealth.com. Dads' criticisms of their daughters' weight or bodyshape can also lead to unhealthy eating behaviours in their children.....

Failed sterilisation leads to €350,000 claim

A man and his estranged wife are seeking €350,000 from the Coombe Hospital in Dublin to meet the cost of raising two children born following a sterilisation procedure, according to this story in the Irish Independent. Bridget and Daniel Byrne already had five children when she had the procedure....

Lies on dating websites? Surely not!

If you're seeking a partner through a dating website, be aware that the person you're interested in could be shorter and heavier than her profile suggests - but, then, so could you. Researchers at Cornell University found that 52.6 per cent of men in a study lied about their height on a dating website. Of the women, 39 per cent lied about height. Women were more likely than men to lie about their weight: 64.1 per cent as against 60.5 per cent. Most people of both genders were honest about their age. Almost a quarter, 24.3 per cent of men lied as did 13.1 per cent of women. Read more here in this story on psychcentral.com.....

Men and self harm

Both men and women self-harm though it is assumed that women are more likely to do so. On the other hand, women may just be more willing to tell their doctor about it so we don't really know how the genders stack up in this regard. Self-harm involves cutting, burning and other such activities. In all probability people self-harm because the pain they inflict on themselves blocks their emotional pain. iselfharm is a blog by an Irishman who says he began self-harming as a seven year old boy. He maintained the blog for about a year and a half but, though he has stopped adding new material, it's still useful to anybody affected by self harm.....

Gender equality coming to the NHS

From April 2007, Britain's National Health Service and organisations funded by it will be legally required to actively promote equality between men and women.

The requirement is based on the poorer health records of men than of women. Among other actions, NHS organisations will have to ensure that women and men make greater use of services that their sex had previously under-used according to this Men's Health Forum (England and Wales) guide to the new requirement.

MHF president Dr Ian Banks gives this example in an article on the MHF website: "Until the age of around 50 years men use general practice services half as much as do women. 'Not such a bad idea' I hear from hard pressed GPs across the country but the upshot is there are twice as many hospital admissions from men after this watershed age.".....

Vista - a guy thing?

Reading on Wired the other day about the underwhelmed response to the launch of Vista, the successor to Windows XP, I wondered if it's exclusively men who read this sort of stuff. How many women will you see staring lovingly at the compute magazines in Easons? Not many - in fact, hardly any, ever. My conversations with women on this topic suggest that to the female of the species a computer is something you use to do specific things like work, buy airline tickets or communicate with friends. But the computer itself carries no allure whatsoever for them. Men, on the other hand, look at a computer and see a world of possibilities - it's a sort of magic box. Which leads me to wonder if a world in which the woman's view predominated would need one new operating system after another and ever more gigabytes of RAM? Or would we be happily working away on, say, Windows 98? And would we be one iota worse off? Probably not. Having said all that, can I just point out to all the guys reading this that you can see screenshots of all Windows operating systems from Windows 1.0 here. Drool, but don't let the gals see you doing it or, well, they'll snigger.....