Great article, very insightful.

Glad to see you back this week...I thought you were gone for good!

Thank you for printing a "story" that needs to be told to not only divorced Dad's but also Mom's.

My Grandson, living with his Mom, says "I can't see my Dad, my Mom won't let me see him, it's not fair!"

Today's family law supports Mom in maintianing custody of her children and Dad becomes a "paycheck" and a "visitor", granted very limited visitation rights, and there are no consequences for Mom who denies her child a relationship with his/her father. This is very common, yet the Utah Legislature has done nothing to assist father's and children with this problem.

In Utah, "Mediation" is the "remedy" for father's who are denied visitation with their children. Move-away's are encouraged as it makes visitation more difficult and again, no consequences for visitation interference. This story cries to be addressed.

As taxpayer's we ought to be concerned about the number of children living in single parent homes and the subsequent increase in crime, drug abuse, suicide, and teen pregnancy. If having a father in the lives of children is beneficial, why is Utah so behind in supporting fatherhood?

The importance of fathers in children's lives cannot be understated with fatherless children significantly more like to have problems with the law, drugs, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, etc as even government funded websites like the National Fatherhood Initiative indicates in its Research, Quick Facts, "The Father Factor" page.

Unfortunately the biases against men in general in this country have become so bad as to be blatantly persecutory. And contrary to popular cultural beliefs, fathers - far from not wanting to be with their kids - are instead being categorically thrown away from their children by this persecution. People who doubt these claims should see the National Eagle Forum website "TIMELY TOPICS" section for Fathers or lookup the works of Professor of Political Science, Dr. Stephen Baskerville such as his new article entitled "Five Myths about No-Fault Divorce".

To learn more and to help fathers - and indeed families - here in Utah, Google for the "Utah Fathers' Rights Meetup Group" and become a member today.

I completely agree with the author in that it is vitally important to the development of a child to have both parents in his/her life. Unfortunately, the current dynamic that is established for Father's in this country and state is that they are a paycheck and that the mother is the caretaker. My former spouse lives 360 miles away from me with my children; I take a monthly trek to pick them up and return to SLC all in the same day, and the same to return them all so that I can have access to them and they to me. My former spouse does not support my relationship to them, and doesn't have to; the state doesn't require it. On family blogs and other communication I am refered to as "the donor" and complained about that my support is always late. I am tired of the bias that is given to mothers and the way that Father's are stereotyped as deadbeats when the majority of dads out there are doing what they can and fighting against a system designed for their failure.

I'm a divorced dad and no one ever had to convince me to be a part of my daughter's life. I had to convince the Utah courts that I should be - it turned out to be a very costly and time consuming undertaking. Ultimately, when my former wife decided to leave Utah with our daughter, there were no impediments in her way.

I am a mom and am so disturbed by the current trend where feminists and Utah lawmakers think women can raise children by themselves. The sad reality and way of operating is that fathers are only good for paying the bills. We blame them for a system we created in which they have no authority. Children are the sad casualty for this current system which teeters money and time in relationship to each other. I am so disgusted that so many women keep their children from fathers using false claims of abuse and crying wolf for abuse simply to maintain control over their ex's! You women are barbaric, selfish and manipulative! It takes away precious resources and legitamacy from other women who have real cases of abuse that are shuffled in to the overburdened court system. If we want to truly achieve equality - then lets stop placing all financial responsiblity on fathers, learn to compromise, and see the importance of a father in a child's life. At the end of eighteen years after the battles have all been fought and re-fought your kids success or failure may just depend on it.

The author seems oblivious to the level of difficulty in situations where fathers would love nothing more than to maintain a relationship with their children but are simply denied.

There's a great deal of pain in my life caused by the withholding of my children by their legal "sole custodian." I'm in a terrible situation that I never wanted, and never deserved. I can't correct it either, which only seems to empower the smugness and abuses of my ex-wife.

Current laws empower women/mothers whose sense of entitlement is skewed, whose willingness to communicate is absent, and whose cooperation in this matter is non-existent.

Current laws tie the hands of decent and honorable fathers, like me, who could greatly enrich the lives of their children, but who are undeservedly shut out.

I haven't missed a child support payment (like that should even matter for fairness and best-interest), but if this year parallels past years, my sons (now 10 and 12) won't be encouraged, much less enabled, to call me on Father's Day. Who's going to remove the rose-colored glasses, or blinders, and write about that?

How can we be so shoved out of their lives - $40,000 and several years later - and never a missed child support pymt - and i still can't see him - all because she tells him i'm a horrible man and that his stepdad is a better father.