Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Inconsistent baby dad. Wanting to cut it off.

12 replies

LD233 · 14/02/2024 20:02

So I have a 6 month old son. Me and ex split when I was pregnant (he left me for his ex and got back with her ) I had a horrendous pregnancy with her and him both sending me abuse and her antagonising me until the point where I almost miscarried.For the last 6 months I've tried my hardest to coparent with him but I am at the end of my tether. He doesn't make effort. He used to alway let our son down and not turn up. The last 2 momths he's been abit more consistent but still doesn't make enough effort. He hasn't seen his son in 2 weeks and was going ti have him this weekend for a night. He's just told me that he's sending our son to his sisters to babysit whilst he goes out with his girlfriend and her kids for the day. He's done this before too. He never asks about our son or calls or texts to check on him and treats hin asif he doesn't exist in the weeks. He puts her children and his gf before our son and always has. He makes plans with them but never with our son. He treats my son like he's the other child and a chore to have him. He's booked a 2 week holiday abroad with them but never has booked any time off work to spend quality time with our son and even now he's palming him off to do stuff with his gf and her kids (one of her kids is his son). I don't want my son growing up thinking his dad doesn't care and feeling like 2nd best. It really hurts me seeing how differently our son is being treated already and how much he priorities his gf and her children over our baby. It's like he just doesn't care. I am so fed up of begging him to make more effort and put our baby first. He's not on the BC for various reasons but I feel like cutting it all off and raising him alone. Like I have been doing as he hasn't barely helped or shown alot of interest. He keeps threatening court and always does. I just feel like cutting it off and letting him apply to court because I'm so tired of jt. My son deserves a parent who puts him first and not other children he deserves to be treated equally to his other child and his step child. Especially to his gf. All i want is for him to make effort but he doesn't. It breaks my heart thinking this is going to affect my son. He completely favours the other 2 children and I can't take anymore of it. He sees her and her children everyday so why can't he spend quality time with our child and prioritise him.

OP posts:
TwylaSands · 14/02/2024 20:09

What he does with his gf and her children, including one of his own, is none of your business. That’s a separate issue. Although he could move in with her and that would reduce cms for your child.

He keeps threatening court and always does.
you want him to have more contact so why would this be a problem. Just calmly say ok that will be for the best and nothing more. He doesnt want the child so why would court be of any benefit to him?

Crunchingleaf · 14/02/2024 20:20

Honestly OP just step back from it all.

You can’t make him take an interest or prioritise the baby. Any man who doesn’t treat their baby as their number one priority isn’t cut out to be a good parent. At best he is Disney dad material.

You are wasting too much mental and emotional energy on this. Be the best mother you can be to your child. Your child doesn’t need you worrying about what your ex is up to. Your child needs you.

Keep records of everything. Don’t get into any conversations with your ex about things unrelated to your child and even then keep it very matter of fact. I don’t think I would cut contact yet though, because if he does decide to take you to court you do need to show he isn’t a stable consistent presence in your child’s like. But if he doesn’t bother see the baby for a few weeks he can’t expect to then take baby overnight as baby won’t know him.

Tinkerbyebye · 14/02/2024 20:25

I would stop all contact, and let him take you to court
li would list all the times he has had him todate and examples such as he has him but offloads him to his sister etc as proof he is not a good father

kkloo · 15/02/2024 06:35

How was he as a parent to his other son while he was with you?

You need to look after your mental health here and trying to limit contact with your ex as much as possible. I wouldn't be trying to arrange anything with him or chasing him up about whether he's going to see your son.

LD233 · 15/02/2024 08:29

kkloo · 15/02/2024 06:35

How was he as a parent to his other son while he was with you?

You need to look after your mental health here and trying to limit contact with your ex as much as possible. I wouldn't be trying to arrange anything with him or chasing him up about whether he's going to see your son.

He actually wasn't seeing his son when i was with him they'd split a while before and he was going through court for Chile cus5ody he didn't see his son for 2 years as he told me she stopped him seeing his child so he had to apply to court

OP posts:
kkloo · 15/02/2024 18:08

@LD233

I could have guessed that.
Jeremy Kyle type so don't expect him to get any better at being a dad any time soon or ever.

Cut him out and let him take you to court if he wants to be in your childs life.

You need to detach and focus on yourself.
It is far far better that your baby has a happy, healthy mother who isn't stressed, than the current situation where you're stressed out and upset trying to force the dad to take an interest.

TheSnowyOwl · 15/02/2024 18:13

You sound as if you are annoyed by him and that’s why you want to stop contact, not because it’s best for your child.

Just step back from what he does and as long as your child isn’t in any danger, he isn’t doing anything wrong by arranging childcare with his family.

Meadowfinch · 15/02/2024 18:38

Document all his failures. Then stop all contact and let him take you to court.

Will he bother? I doubt it. Men like that will always let their children down. The sooner he absents himself permanently, the better.

Stinkycarrot · 16/02/2024 02:56

I wouldn't be happy with my 6 month old going to stay at his sister's. Do you know her? Have you been to her house? I wouldn't let my son go again as who knows who else he will be left with

MiltonNorthern · 16/02/2024 05:49

LD233 · 15/02/2024 08:29

He actually wasn't seeing his son when i was with him they'd split a while before and he was going through court for Chile cus5ody he didn't see his son for 2 years as he told me she stopped him seeing his child so he had to apply to court

Well you know what he will be like if you do stop contact - he will disappear and complain about you to the next mug woman he gets pregnant

YANBU by the way, stop chasing him to be a father. He's a useless twat.

TheShellBeach · 16/02/2024 05:55

I'd just stop all contact. If he wants to see his child, he can take you to court.

Sending your son to be looked after by his sister is not what is meant by contact.

I wouldn't allow it, especially in a young baby who doesn't know your ex's sister anyway.

Does this idiot pay maintenance?

Graphista · 16/02/2024 15:30

Drop the rope

I've been there, I bent over backwards trying to ensure my daughter still had a relationship with her dad at great cost to myself financially and emotionally and ultimately a too high cost to her emotionally.

We split when she was 2 and immediately he became disinterested and unreliable.

Now over 20 years later I have so many regrets.

I cut him off, he took me to court, not because he cared for dd but because he hated me cutting him off, taking the decision for him effectively.

There were several hearings in the end because he consistently didn't hold up his end of the bargain.

In hindsight I wish I had passively let him vanish from her life. If I had not proactively pursued contact with him for her, I believe he would have relatively quickly just stopped bothering.

What happened was this is what occurred when she was high school age which was far harder for her to deal with that rejection.

She's now an adult, she got back in contact with her half siblings a few years ago on SM but her relationship with her dad is beyond repair.

He now wants a relationship with her, still on his terms (she lives near him but he only makes an effort on certain occasions eg his birthday, but not hers) and throws a strop when she won't play along. Well you reap what you sow!

Over the years I have naturally come to know other single parent families and noticed there are 3 potential outcomes:

Non resident parent remains engaged and reliable and a good co-parenting relationship works for all concerned.

Non resident parent is absent. Child quickly gets used to this and they are their own wee family that usually works well.

Non resident parent messes about like my ex and your baby's dad and the kids end up suffering massively.

Hence - drop the rope.

Don't antagonise him. Don't fight for contact, or against on the rare occasion it does happen but also don't hang about waiting for daddy for hours, if he's more than half hour late go be somewhere else that he can't turn up to. Natural consequences for him.

I think you'll find what will happen is he will naturally disappear from your lives within months.

At which point just forget him, move on and raise your child the best way you can.

I wish I'd done that, the pain my daughter feels at being wayyyyy down her dads list of priorities is heartbreaking. Though these days she's more likely to get annoyed/angry/irritated eg we planned Xmas together (she lives away for uni at mo), 9pm Xmas eve he calls asking what time she'll be over tomorrow - he hadn't been in touch with her since before Halloween! But just assumed she'd be there for Xmas. He then took umbrage when she said she was spending it with me to the point he was like "well you're not getting your present then" Hmm dick!

Her response was "fine whatever"

Your baby needs consistent and reliable people involved in raising and supporting them, not someone who doesn't care enough to even just show up!

I do agree with CrunchingLeaf that keeping records of it all is a good idea cos if he and his gf split he may try crawling back and if he does decide to take you to court you'll want evidence of this inconsistency.

It's one thing I did and was glad of, texts and emails showed the court my evidence of his flakiness. By the time of the last hearing the judge was like, this guys over the last 2 years repeatedly flaked out, nah. Very rarely in a case with no obvious abuse (I would argue this is emotionally abusive) the judge actually said to my ex if he took me to court again and we were there cos I'd stopped contact due to his flakiness the court would terminate his parental rights and he was entering that into the record for future ref. Even my lawyer was shocked and said that hardly ever happens unless serious abuse occurring.

He actually wasn't seeing his son when i was with him they'd split a while before and he was going through court for Chile cus5ody he didn't see his son for 2 years as he told me she stopped him seeing his child so he had to apply to court

Sorry to say but, you knew what he was like then. Why expect him to be any better to your child?

he will disappear and complain about you to the next mug woman he gets pregnant

Yep

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread