As children, we are not mature enough to see our father’s depression, alcoholism or selfishness. We feel rejection and pain and assume it must be something we are or do that is causing it. Boys from the age of six to fourteen start to look more and more to their father, or other male role models, for fun, activities and time. “This is the age when a boy becomes happy and secure about being a male…they want to ‘study how to be male” – Biddulph, 2003. If a father is unavailable to his son at this age, the child often makes desperate attempts to get his attention. It could be acting out, becoming a bully or destroying the house. Kids can be creative.