Dear Sir,

I have a few questions that need to be answered, so here goes ...

I just want to start off by saying that Family Court is a joke. Instead of sending the parents to mediation sessions to work on their differences, how about spending more time on what’s going to benefit the children? Wouldn’t that be the logical thing to do?

How is it that a father can walk into Family Court, with a binder full of evidence, proving that his child’s mother is an unfit mother, yet that gets swept under the carpet because he owes back pay in child support?

How is it that a mother can complain about how the father is irresponsible and not trustworthy, without any evidence, and the judge takes her word for it? On the other hand, if the father complains and has evidence that the mother is using the child-support money for her own personal use, again it gets swept under the carpet.

How is that when a father takes his children to the hospital for injuries that occurred in the mother’s care several days before it is his time to have them, the authorities at the hospital automatically call the police to have him arrested on child abuse/neglect charges? Only once the father pleads his case and explains that the children were injured in the mother’s care are the charges dropped — and nothing happens to the mother.

Why is it that a father is summoned to Family Court because the mother feels he is only suitable to have his children on the weekends? Yet his children cry and beg to have their father in their life on a more constant basis. However, Family Court allows the mother to have so much say on when the father can spend time with his children. So, basically, Family Court is and always will be in favour of the mother? Regardless if she is proven to be an unfit mother or not?

Has anyone on that panel stopped and asked the children what they want or need? Do the children in this country have rights? Are they not allowed to voice their opinion? Who is actually standing up for the children’s rights? It’s not Family Court, that’s for sure.

Children in this country are suffering unnecessarily, all because their mothers are bitter. It’s child abuse to keep a father away from his children, or vice versa, because the mother doesn’t want them after he broke her heart — or whatever excuse she can come up with.

Unless the father is a convicted paedophile, a danger to himself or others, it is against the child protection laws in this country to keep him away from his children.

With that being said, how is it that the mothers in this country get away with it on a regular basis?

Since when does a father have to prove that he is capable to have his children on a weeknight? Yet, while the children are in the mother’s care, they are failing school and, once again, it gets swept under the carpet.

Why is it so hard for fathers to get joint custody of their children? Why do fathers have to jump through so many obstacles just to spend time with their children? How is it that a father has his children on his insurance, pays child support and still he has to fight to spend time with his children?

Why is it that mothers are still being allowed to take their children out of the country without the father’s consent? How is it that once the children have been taken out of the country, the police are not willing to help? Isn’t their job to do so? And if it is, I need an explanation as to why fathers are being denied help from the police. The police are supposed to do as much as they can to find the mother, aren’t they? If it was the other way around, the father would have been arrested at the airport on kidnapping charges.

In conclusion, the law system in the country is one-sided. Basically, fathers have no rights and no voice.

Not all “baby daddies” are bad. Give the good ones a chance to be in their children’s lives. Children need their fathers just as much as they need their mothers. The children shouldn’t have to suffer just because their parents are no longer together.

FED-UP STEPMOM