London Eye shut at the moment - bbc news story

[MummyToSteven]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3646948.stm

[vict17]

They do well with getting publicity Father 4 Justice don't they?!

[enid]

they get on my nerves.

[vict17]

Well I don't know much about it but it seems like they have a good case.....

[fairyfly]

good for them, i only wish my x was that passionate, he thinks they are kindred spirits, only difference is he can see them any hour any day, he just is "a very busy man"

[auntyquated]

i believe they do have a very good cause but this kind of thing does it no good imo

[Marina]

I think the cause in principle is a good one. I do wonder if the individuals behind this particular pressure group are major PITAs though.
Certainly if I was a pre-teen or teenager I'd be mortified to see my chubby old dad dangling off a crane/building...

[Hulababy]

Whilst the cause is a very good one, I just done think these kind of stunts help. I also get the impression that fathers 4 justice aren't particularly impressed at times.

[edam]

Don't think the cause is a good one, tbh. If you look at the threads here, there are plenty of absent fathers who just can't be bothered to turn up when they say they will, despite huge and exhausting efforts of the part of mothers to help the kids maintain a relationship with ther dads. No doubt these pathetic men tell everyone they don't see their kids very often because their witch of an ex-wife - that's the socially accepted excuse these days.
IMO FFJ are probably a bunch of wife-beaters who want access to their kids so they can continue to control and terrorise their families. It's vanishingly rare for an OK father to be denied access by the courts ? it only happens if there is a good reason. There may be a few women who make life hard for OK dads after divorce, but I don't think men who want to punish women for daring to defy them should be given any support at all.

[Marina]

Gosh Edam, you've said right out loud what I thought but was too chicken to post!

[edam]

Glad I'm not the only one, Marina. Am really worried that the line that fathers are terribly badly treated by dreadful women who scar their children for life has gained public currency, when it's the opposite of the truth in most cases.

[nutcracker]

I do happen to think that it is a good cause. I don't think that they always go about things in the right way but if you were being denied access to your kids, wouldn't you feel like doing something about it.
Yes there are lots of dads who couldn't care less about seeing their kids but there are also lots who try soooo hard to seee their kids and are constantly knocked back.

When my parents divorced I as a 12 yr old had to fight soooo hard to be allowed to live with my dad. If i hadn't got my way then my dad would of been in the position of some of these men in Fathers 4 Justice, as my mom wouldn't of allowed him any contact. I would have been pround of him fighting for me.

[Marina]

I'm sure I remember the ex-partner of one of the regular demonstrators commenting in a commendably restrained way on what an impossible, disruptive idiot the man was. She had the courts' backing in this.

[Marina]

Nutty I take your point utterly, but there are other, less "extreme" fathers' groups out there representing the dads' side of things in cases where the courts might have got it wrong. FFJ are doing all this because neither the courts nor Families Need Fathers etc will help them - and you've got to wonder why that it is.

[nutcracker]

A good friend of ours got divorced from his wife about 4 yrs ago now. I think at the time, his two boys were about 3 and 18mths.

His ex wife at first stayed in the area but refused him contact. Then she told him she was moving away so that he couldn't see them.

Since she moved he has seen them less and less. She will agreee to him seeing them and then let him drive all the way there and be out, or ring him and tell him the kids don't want to see him. He knows that they do want to see him as family members have told him.

He has had court orders made loads of times but she never sticks to them.
He is a good dad and is being treated terribly.

My dad was in Families need Fathers and i'm very glad that he was as they helped him to keep his calm and fight for what he wanted.
People probably thought my dad was mad for trying to get custody of us, infact i know they did, but he is my dad he has just as much right as my mom did.

Like i said, i do not condonne some of the actions of Fathers 4 justice BUT I can understand why they do it.