Keir Starmer is right - Being a dad and a husband is the most important job he’ll ever do

There has been a lot of media interest in fatherhood recently, even the Prime Minister named it in his resignation speech - Gareth Crispin distils the lessons we can learn for Christian dads

In his resignation speech today, Keir Starmer noted that whilst being Prime Minister might be the biggest job in the country, being a father and a husband is the most important job he will ever do. His comments came in amongst a steady flow of interest in fatherhood in recent months. The boxing matches between Eubank Jnr and Conor Benn resulted in a documentary about the Eubank’s: Like Father Like Son. In addition, there are many podcasts and radio programmes focusing in on being a dad. Significant among them are Father Figuring by comedian Darren Harriott and also Radio 4s Moral Maze which had a fascinating discussion on: ‘What should we expect from a father?’

After watching and listening to all those here are five things I think Christian dads (and everyone else) should take away.

1. Be there

In Father Figuring there was a big focus on being there, especially for lads. A generation of lost boys, lads with no dads are struggling to know who they are or where they belong because they are not sure what it means to be a man - and one of the reasons is that their dad is not there.

On the programme Sonia Shaljean from the charity Lads Need Dads said that: “you can’t be what you can’t ……