I thought I was extremely luck to meet my ex. She was very attractive and at the beginning she couldn't do enough for me. As time went on the balance of power changed and she expected me to be the one doing
whatever she wanted. When she became pregnant, I thought it was reasonable to consider an abortion as the relationship was unstable. She assumed that this meant I did not want children.
After my son was born, the arguments became too frequent and I had to end the relationship. My son was ten months old. Initially I believed that seeing him every Sunday was enough. I didn't ask for more, but as she believed I did not want children, she gradually increased the contact so by the first year at school I was seeing him all weekend every weekend. It took her 5 years to realise
that I actually enjoyed having parenting time. So she cut it back. Then I complained, she realised she had found my weak point and cut back contact further. She refused to negotiate so I had to apply to court for a contact order and Parental Responsibility. I was naive and
innocent and believed at that time that we lived in a fair society where men and women were treated equally. I believed if I went to court I would get back the contact that I had been enjoying, or even get residency. I represented myself in the first two hearings. I could
not believe what happened. It was not about equal contact or about equal rights, it was all about satisfying the mother! We eventually negotiated a compromise of alternate weekends and half the holidays, which she (amazingly) has stuck to for 5 years. However it got me
thinking about men's rights and I did further research of my own. I was horrified by what I discovered. In just about every area of society men either had no rights at all, or those rights were subject to a woman's veto! Over the next few months I'll look at the various areas of institutionalised anti-male discrimination in a series of
articles posted on this website.
Since my computer business was failing for various reasons, I was looking at an alternate future for the second half of my career in a way to help fathers in particular and men generally. hence I decided
to try and retrain as a solicitor. After 4 years of part-time courses at college I am now on a two year trainee solicitor course with a law firm. We shall see what happens over the next two years if this is the best way for me to help fight the injustices in this country.
