Month: November 2025
Our Stories, Our Strength: Honoring Family Narratives
Inspired by Family Stories Month, I’ll start where I am. I’ll tell my children what I know, what I’ve learned, and what I still hope to understand. I will remember the past and author the present — not just by celebrating what we’ve inherited, but by creating what we want to leave behind.
Our stories are our strength. Our storytelling is our legacy. And our legacy begins today.
Reclaiming the Narrative of Black Fatherhood
What we need now isn’t another study, stereotype, or headline. We need space for honest conversations across generations, households, and experiences. We need to celebrate the fathers doing the work and support the ones who are still fighting to get there.
We need to reclaim our narrative not as a rebuttal, but as a declaration. Black fatherhood has never needed saving. It has only needed witnessing.
Viral Cardi–Offset–Diggs Story Shines a Spotlight on Georgia’s Legitimation Law
Right now, millions of people are debating this on social media, learning the word “legitimation” in the same breath they’re laughing at Offset’s deleted “My kid lol” post. But there’s nothing funny about the weight this law carries for fathers who do not have a press team or a lawyer on speed dial.
The Cardi-Offset-Diggs uproar may fade from the timeline in a few days, but the lesson it exposes cannot. Georgia’s legitimation laws deserve scrutiny, public awareness, and modernization.
Taking Care of Your Mental Health: An Open Letter to Young Fathers
New fatherhood is a rollercoaster, and it’s okay if some days feel like you’re clenching the safety bar with both hands. Your mental health isn’t separate from this ride; it is the seatbelt that keeps you in the car.
If your mood feels stuck — anger that won’t cool down, sadness that won’t lift, anxiety that pins you to the mattress — talk to someone. Just as we practice for a trade or a sport, counseling helps us develop mental and emotional skills for partnerships, parenting, and work.
Traditional and Cultural Adoptions: Critical Differences — and the Need for Both
Adoption, in its truest sense, has never been about legality alone. In many communities, it has always been about love, obligation, and survival. Long before there were state agencies or social service departments, there was a cultural system — neighbors taking in children after tragedy, grandparents raising grandchildren, aunts and uncles becoming stand-in parents when life took unexpected turns.
To truly understand adoption in America, and to strengthen the systems that govern it, we must hold space for both traditional and cultural adoption.
The Oneness of Co-Parenting
Here’s the truth I want every father and mother to hear: Your child doesn’t care about who was right. They don’t measure your love by how much you win the argument but by how well you work together for their well-being. They remember the tone of your voice when you speak about their other parent. They remember if they felt safe enough to love you both without guilt.
The oneness of co-parenting asks us to evolve — to put aside the “me” and embrace the “we.” It’s an act of maturity, faith, and courage. It requires both parents to look beyond themselves and see the divine assignment they share. You are co-creators of a life. And that life deserves wholeness, not division.
When Winning Feels Like Losing: The Hidden Scoreboard of Fatherhood and the Battle for Connection
Parenthood, in general (and fatherhood, in particular), is often talked about in the language of winning and losing. We hear it in courtrooms: “I won custody.” We hear it in child support battles: “He lost his rights.” We even hear it in the tone of everyday conversations when someone asks, “What happened with your case?” and the answer comes back, “I won.”
But every time a parent “loses” in court, there is another loss that no one writes about — the child’s. The child loses the rhythm of consistent connection. They lose the security of shared presence. And they begin to internalize the idea that love and belonging are things people have to compete for.
Walking in Dads’ Shoes: How Journey Mapping Helps Programs Truly Serve Fathers
In plain terms, the “Adapting to Fathers’ Needs: Creating Change Using Insights from Customer Journey Mapping” brief asks programs to walk through each step as a dad experiences it. It invites fatherhood program teams to review every touchpoint — from outreach to intake to workshops to follow-up — and name what feels welcoming, what trips fathers up, and what would keep them coming back. The brief translates empathy into operations, and it works.