He was doing so well up to now.

tbh I thought my ex was a good dad. Met the g/f last year and thats that! The girls and me totally on our own - they didn't mention fathers day today and neither did I. They havent heard from their dad for ages apart from the cruel things he has done personally to them financially.

It seems he wants them to hate them so that they don't want anything to do with them.

I say don't hate your father - one of Gods commandments is to Honour thy mother and father - I say hate what he has turned into, but don't hate your father.

It is amazing what the other woman can do to turn a once doting father into a greedy, uncaring individual.
I would have sworn on my life when I was with my ex that if we ever split up he would see the kids and me right.
However, he left for another woman and was hell bent on ruining us, seeing us in the gutter from day one.
He wasnt bothered whether the kids had a working TV (when he came to take "his" half of the stuff for their love nest he took all but 1 old TV from the house and even the sky box!) nor food in their tums.
Back in the days when I did get maintenance (dont get excited, it was £5 a week for 2 kids despite him living in luxury...the old self employed ploy) I had an email from his gf telling me I dressed the kids in rags (I didnt, far from it) and that she could see no evidence that her bf's money was being spend on "his" children...felt like replying with "look love, you dont have kids...my rent is XXX, my utilities are xxx, my food bill is xxx, our youngest is still in nappies which cost xxx a week, petrol and car expenses xxx a week, saving for xmas xxx a week etc etc etc..so please tell me out of tax credits, housing benefits and my paltry wage I can buy em clothes"...but didnt lower myself! The cheeky cow!'specially when she was living in a majorly big house with my ex, enjoying holidays etc and didnt have to work!

Getting back to David Cameron's pronouncement - I don't see that he can *criticise absentee fathers who don't support their children, praise single mothers and then say the answer is to give tax breaks to married couples!

That's not going to encourage anyone to stay and it won't help women struggling to bring up children on their own, or fathers who want better contact - and it won't address the problem of fathers who have no intention of supporting or seeing their children.

Maybe Mr Cameron should read some of the posts on this website to open his eyes and his mind.

No-one can stop a marriage breaking up, not even Mr Cameron.

However, he should fully support all fathers (unless there is a reason not to) who wish to maintain a permanent and meaningful relationship with their children. Fathers should not have to resort to the Courts to get shared residence of their children. And the CSA should not be hounding fathers who are prepared to maintain and offer a home to their children for 50% of the time, particularly when the father is paid less than the average national wage, as many are.

CSA should then use their available resources to track down fathers who have no intention of paying a single penny towards the upkeep of their children.

I agree partly stepper but the CSA are a shambles.
My ex has avoided paying next to nothing for almost 4 years.
I have now got to a point where I dont want anything from him. If he fights this hard NOT to help provide for his kids then I dont want his money.
The CSA have investigated him and whilst they agree that living in a 7 bed mansion (well it's called an "executive home")..going on holiday monthly and not having to claim ANY benefits does raise suspicion they cannot do anything about it as they have documents from his accountant which prove he's not receiving any money...so I said "no, he's probably not but I bet his wife is!!"...and the answer to that was that they cant look into anyone elses accounts...I know they can but they wont, it's too much trouble!
The CSA is a joke!

stepper wrote:

No-one can stop a marriage breaking up, not even Mr Cameron.

However, he should fully support all fathers (unless there is a reason not to) who wish to maintain a permanent and meaningful relationship with their children. Fathers should not have to resort to the Courts to get shared residence of their children. And the CSA should not be hounding fathers who are prepared to maintain and offer a home to their children for 50% of the time, particularly when the father is paid less than the average national wage, as many are.

CSA should then use their available resources to track down fathers who have no intention of paying a single penny towards the upkeep of their children.

That is brilliant! If shared residence was the norm, actually mandatory, following a split then there would be no need for the csa or even single parent benefit, and both parents would be on an equal footing as regards financially supporting their children, and contact. That would save the government millions each year, and the taxpayer, and everyone would be happy!

There is a private members Bill going through Parliament at the moment on this very issue. However, there have been recent rumblings from an eminent research group (Oxford based, I think) to the effect that shared parenting does not benefit children. Not sure how they came to that conclusion, but some on the reseach panel are lawyers and so have a vested interest in keeping families going backwards and forwards to Court.

They have to make a living don't they!