Why is this man being celebrated?

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq8rz38jr50go

so when his child was 8 years old he decided to leave the country and undertake a 28 year walk around the world, setting himself a rule that he couldn’t come back to the UK until he’d completed it, and we’ve celebrating him why?

I remember watching him being interviewed on bbc news a few weeks ago and thought to myself, how sad, he’s given up his opportunity to have a family if he wanted one and then at the end they said to him you’ll be looking forward to meeting your granddaughter for the first time?! I thought you selfish bastard, you’ve left everyone else to look after your child(ren) done what you wanted for the last 30 years and now you expect a heroes welcome like you’ve endured hardship. What about the hardship of the woman who has undoubtedly brought your children up.
what a dickhead.

There have been parts of ‘his walk’ where other walker/s have accompanied him, it’s possible i may know 1 -but always forget to enquire about how that section of the walk came about, maybe this’ll jog memory when/if i next see accompanyer 🤭

The only people criticising him are on here ?

Ex-paratrooper? This might look like a better variation than homelessness and life collapse which is very widespread among ex-service personnel.

The way we treat forces personnel - in the job and after it - is the crisis of masculinity writ large.

People do the best they can.

Do they?

The best he could do for his 8 year old child was go.off.on a jollie for 30 years, spending half of it on holiday in Mexico never working a day?

You are missing my point. The BBC could critique a woman or a man in this way without it being an opinion piece.

But they don’t have they never had. It’s not their writing style.

We are. That’s the whole point of the thread isn’t it?

So he can now be arrested for non payment of child support and also child neglect and abandonment? Doubtful I guess, nice for him to just fuck off like that. If this was a woman there would be uproar but hey ho a man got to live out HIS dream.

Are you actually SO ANGRY you can't use the spacebar?

Yes, people do the best they can; do you not? You seem furious, and I assume that's the best you can do. Sad, but hardly inhuman.

I saw this story earlier and thought exactly the same thing

I didn’t know that. If it was a woman and the dad was the main parent what would they do? Genuinely curious about it.

She's reluctantly made a brief statement because the red pill lot had gone after her for "running off with his son, leaving him no choice, but to protect his MH".

Unfortunately, paratroopers ex or not were and are targeted in Northern Ireland. Murky circumstances, state collusion and losing relatives with no answers tends to breed bitterness.

I don't know his wife's back ground. If she was from East Belfast and moved back there, no problem, he could visit and he'd have pints waiting for him at the bar. Paratroop Regiment flag flown often in Loyalist areas.

West Belfast, Bogside and other heavily Nationalist areas, they'd know her ex had been a paratropper and shoot him on the wayvtonpuck up.of drop off his son. Someone would notice in those streets. Even to this day he'd be at risk

Somewhere inbetween, rural, small towns, mixed areas, he'd probably be okay. But evebn there, again, the wrong person could notice

Unfortunately the sad reality of Northern Ireland.

@LemonTT

Why are you assuming that they could only meet in Ireland? If I wanted to see my child and I couldn't get to a specific location or if it was dangerous to do so, I would find somewhere else to meet.

About the CMS payment points raised by PPs - surely these have nothing to do with targeted regiments. Bank transfers can be made from anywhere right?

He is just yet another avoidant father. Let's just be honest about what it is.

They would write exactly the same article

You just cut and pasted this from earlier without addressing the point that he instead chose to live in far more dangerous places and carry out life risking activities through his own choice.

Why do you need to read that?
There's something weird going on if people can't just read an article and think it through, but need the article itself to confirm their personal feelings.

How did his cart cross the channel? And other seas?

i hate people like this: silly dreamers who can’t face up to responsibility

I read his book ‘Giant Steps’ a few years ago. It is very good and explains everything he’s done and why in detail.

You want his personal story - that's gossip.

You're making uneducated guesses about a stranger's life - that's gossip.

If you want to talk about issues, that's totally different.

He has tour dates in November so won't be in his old bedroom for long!

To challenge the normalisation of and acceptance that men can fuck off to live their dreams despite being fathers.

That’s unfair.

Lots of people use text talk or similar because they’re disabled or registered blind and it doesn’t always make it easy to have perfect punctuation all of the time.

Ultimately, this man had a child and was not involved, did not contribute financially and made no effort for its entire life.

Many of us have trauma.
I have cPTSD and got pregnant as a homeless teenager.

I did the best I could to raise my child.
If I needed them to go into foster care, I would have worked on myself until I got them back.
At the very least, I would have stayed in the same country and formed a relationship once they got to a certain age.

You can have trauma and be a deadbeat parent and it’s ok to acknowledge when someone is a crap parent.

From another BBC article written in September:

I ask him what the hardest part of the journey has been, but instead of talking about blisters or fears about crime, he says: "It's the relationships. I've fallen in love twice, lost them, and that leaves marks.
"The physical pain stuff – yeah, that's all doable. In terms of falling in love and then having to just carry on the walk? You're going to lose it.
So - missing seeing your child grow up into an adult isn't the hardest part?!

From a guardian article:
Once Bushby had made up his mind, he accepted that he would never see his son growing up. If everything went to plan, Adam would be 20 when he got back (as it is, he is 36).

“That was a difficult decision,” Bushby says. “But the way I squared that circle was, ‘How would I be worth something to my son?’ Would I be worth more to him by doing something on this scale?’” He doesn’t sound wholly convinced by his argument

And...
Bushby says he has led a selfish life. When he set off, he knew that if either of his parents died while he was away, he would not return for their funeral. When his son, Adam, almost died in a motorbike accident, he didn’t return home. He tells me he’s got a 12-year-old granddaughter he is yet to meet

And...
Totally self-centred,” agrees Bushby. “This 28 years has been about keeping me. I have been the centre of my world. It has been about getting me from A to B, looking after me, giving me the money so I can survive. Totally self-centred.”

So, we don't need to speculate really. He's fully admitting he's a selfish twat.