Dear Christine,
I have tears running down my face as I write this letter. I and a lot of parents out there need your advice.
I am a mother of four wonderful children. I have my own home and my children and I are very comfortable. Their father and I broke up about six years ago. When we were together he looked after the children. I could not have asked for a better father. However, when we broke up that all changed so I had to put him in court for support.
Christine, the way the court system is now, it makes it very hard for you to take care of your children. They are now printing cheques on the 15th and 30th of the month as if you are being paid a salary. Today, the day I am writing this letter, is October 8 and I have not received any money for August as yet.
I am not working as I was laid off earlier this year after 15 years on the job. I would like to know if the people who are in charge are thinking about the children.
How fair is it to print cheques twice a month when money is needed on behalf of these children daily? I depend on this money to feed and send my children to school. What these people are doing is madness. Can’t they think about the children? Please tell me what to do. I cannot go on like this.
– Annoyed
Dear Annoyed,
You and maybe thousands of other single parents out there are constantly pleading for a change in the court system, regarding the late payment or non-payment of child maintenance fees.
Sadly, your pleas seem to be falling on deaf ears, as those in high positions cannot be bothered to listen to mothers who find themselves having to take their children’s fathers to court.
In fact, those seated in high places seem never able to understand the pain, not because they have never lived it, but because they have never even tried to place themselves in your position.
Like you, I have become disillusioned by my efforts. Like you also, I wish that those in authority would recognize that the ones being hurt are our nation’s children – the same children who will someday have to cast a vote; the same children who will be the leaders of tomorrow; the same children who will shape the future of this country.
If their fathers and those in high places continue to treat them like the scum of the earth by not standing up for them and ensuring their rights, we must not be surprised at their retaliation in years to come.
Our children are the ones who are not able to attend school, eat a proper meal or enjoy some of the everyday benefits that most people do.
I trust for the children’s sake that someone will stand up and fight for them.
Maybe we need another David Comissiong – one who is not afraid to fight for the causes in which he believes. Or, perhaps we need a woman among us who will plead their cause.
My question is who among us will indeed help our nation’s children who are not only suffering at the hands of their own flesh and blood – irresponsible fathers and mothers in some cases – but at the hands of those who govern the affairs of the society into which they have been born.
I guess we’ll both have to wait and see who will indeed be a voice for the children’s sake.
– CHRISTINE
