Earlier this afternoon, I was at Euston train station in London with my friend, Naomi, returning from Watford. As we crossed the ticket barriers, there was a lot of noise and scuffles around one man. He was bleeding profusely from his nose. We managed to make out that somebody had head-butted this guy and ran off to get on the train.

A few minutes later, after the police finally managed to arrive, they escorted a man in his early-mid thirties from the train back into the station. Walking on either side of him were two young children - a boy aged about 4 and a girl of 6 years. The father of the two children was shouting and swearing profanities and was demanding to be released because he was with his children.

As he was resisting so much, the police cuffed the man who started shouting and swearing even more. At this point, his daughter and son started screaming for the police to let him go. In that instant, almost every onlooker stopped to find out what was going on. Both Naomi and I felt our hearts jump out at the children's screaming and anguish. Finally, more police arrived, including one woman officer. They managed to calm the man down and she eventually got the children to calm down too.

It transpired that the father of the children was rushing to get to his train when a passenger going the opposite way got in his way. They both tried squeezing through a ticket barrier - one with a big suitcase and the other with two children. Rather than let the other through, the father head-butted the other passenger, probably breaking his nose in the process.

What's going on that:

1. People are so rushed that they do not notice other children and give way?

2. A father cares not in the least about gross violence and anger towards another fellow human being?

3. A father has so little consciousness that he thinks nothing of the impact his profanities and physical actions will have on his children.

Given the nature of his daughter's scream, I have no doubt that this poor girl was traumatised and will be so from this horrid experience.This just reinforces my observation in the work that I do with teens and young adults. One of the prime reason so many young people have behavioural issues is because of the kind of relationship they have with their dads.

There are far too many dads playing a deadbeat role instead of a conscious role in their children's lives. I truly hope the work we're doing through the likes of my 'Amazing Dads' CD programme and Naomi Sesay's Conscious Parenting (both released this week) and workshops reaches the likes of the father we witnessed at Euston Station.

As dads, we are responsible for not just the well-being of our children today, but also the impact they have as future leaders. Perhaps we should be mindful of the way we think and behave.

Harun Rabbani