You are in an archived section of the website. This information may not be current. This page was first created in December, We all know why we're here today. You're here because men aren't seeing enough of their children, that after divorce they're lone fathers if they're lucky and cheque books on legs if things turn out badly.
Sadly, there are some men who just disappear as dads altogether. What I am not here to do is provide a free analysis of the Family Law Act and the Child Support Agency; other speakers have covered those topics extensively already.
Let me start by saying you're not the only frustrated ones. Women are often frustrated that men don't spend enough time with their children- only usually when they're still together. And therein lies the problem. The angers are not in alignment. It's about time men got angry about it. Revolutions begin when people get angry, get talking, get to know it's not just them, it's the system- and then they start to agitate for change.
But while anger might be where it starts, it's not where it ends, it certainly doesn't solve the problem. And that's what I would like to talk about today, about the revolution begun by women but that can only be ended by men and women together. The problem does not start at divorce. It starts at the birth of your child, when the mother takes time off work to care for the baby, or maybe decides to leave work altogether, and you take two days of your annual leave when she comes home from hospital because your company doesn't offer paid parental leave and there's a mortgage to pay.
Of course the reason mothers get maternity leave and sometimes paid maternity leave is that women have spent twenty years agitating for it and other workplace supports like part-time work that make it possible for them to both mother and work.
