More than one in three children never see their father again after their parents split up, research into family breakdown shows. And nearly one in ten is so traumatised by the separation that they have considered suicide.
Children are often used as ‘emotional footballs’ and left feeling ‘used, isolated and alone’, with many turning to drink, drugs and truanting. Sandra Davis, head of family law at Mishcon de Reya, which carried out the survey of more than 4,000 people, said: ‘This research highlights that despite their best intentions, parents are often using their children as emotional footballs.
Notice how this article opens with fathers not seeing children, implying it is their choice (and thus are ‘deadbeat dads’), but when it comes to children being used as emotional weapons, they generalise. I mean, if so many children are kept by the mother, and the father has NO CONTACT, you must assume that the majority of emotional abuse would come from the mother. But you cannot criticise mothers, the all-perfect little things.
‘They can be seen as tangible objects. There has to be change to give our children a voice that’s meaningful. ‘The process now encourages an adversarial approach, but it needs to be about communication between the parents.
How about equal rights to the children, which is actually enforceable?
‘Therapeutic input, not litigation, is the answer and will reduce the emotional and financial cost of separation.’ For 38 per cent of children, separation meant they never saw their father again.
Although 70 per cent of parents said their children’s welfare was the most important factor in a divorce, a quarter of children said they had been forced by one parent to lie to the other.
I wonder which sex did that the most. Still, this will keep being promoted for two reasons. Men are the enemy of tyrants and women are the majority voting base.
