For ten years I’ve watched my husband live right down the road from a little boy who has begged and begged to have 50/50 with his mom and dad, only to be told he should be happy with every other weekend.
For ten years I’ve watched as my husband never missed a minute of any parenting time he was granted. I watched as he paid every dollar in child support in full, while never saying no to extras, and offering more. I’ve watched him promise to never file to lower Child Support multiple times, on his own. I watched his family move as an army to send my stepson’s mom to school so she wouldn’t struggle in any way, made sure she always knew she’d be provided for, made sure she was never in this alone.
Then in spite of this, I’ve watched him be referred to as “absent” and “sperm donor” online and to friends and family. I’ve watched him be denied motions simply asking to be bumped up from 30% to 35% time for the year. I’ve watched an adult man who is supposed to be a bonus parent throw a temper tantrum over him arriving 5 minutes early for pickup, so the child could get to rehearsal on time.
I’ve watched the greatest father I’ve ever met in my entire life, and the boy who loves him the most, be ripped apart from each other for artificial, poisonous and pathetic reasons.
And I only came in at year 5. The boy will be 16 this year, and is still not allowed to ride his bike to his father’s house 0.5 miles away to spend time with his dad.
Equal shared parenting is necessary.
Parental alienation is real.
And you’re crazy if you think we are giving up or shutting up about it: We are just getting started.
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