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One in 25 fathers 'not the daddy'

50 replies

QueenOfQuotes · 11/08/2005 03:57

here

Well I guarantee that DH is "the daddy" of my two........so that's another 23 to go

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fqueenzebra · 11/08/2005 04:51

I've been doing family history stuff lately & wondering how many of the male lines aren't really worth tracing, heehee... At least you can be pretty darn sure of the validity of the female line, but it's the harder one to follow up.

One of my cousins has been told a lie all his life about who his real father his.... I think this may be true of one of my dad's step-sisters, too.

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QueenOfQuotes · 11/08/2005 04:53
Sad
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fqueenzebra · 11/08/2005 04:57

what are you still doing up?

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QueenOfQuotes · 11/08/2005 04:58

ermmmm

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suzywong · 11/08/2005 05:08

I'm astounded it's that many, is that an average though

years ago a friend of mine who has his phd in evolutionary psychology was dragged on to the Trisha show to be the token egg-head and confer that theory, only they put it at one in 10. The nice people from the council estate in Kirby who were the token "not the daddy" part of the programme were not best pleased to hear the stats or the probable reasons why their women shopped around for the Alpha male's genes.

Poor old egghead had to go in a separate part of the green room for fear of reprisals. He said Trisha wore make-up several inches thick.

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fqueenzebra · 11/08/2005 05:23

I thought that chimpanzees often deliberately but covertly & at great risk, don't mate with alpha males. They mate with males who are completely outside the troop and don't have in theory any mating rights. If the females are caught mating with outsiders by the alpha males then they (the females) will get beaten up savagely, but still they do it.

Must confer some biological advantage to mate with subdominant males...

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throckenholt · 11/08/2005 08:04

apparently there is a biological urge for females to stray at the time of ovulation. I guess in terms of evolution it sensible to cohabit with a dominant male who will provide and protect, but also important to play the field in case said dominant male is not very fertile, and also to mix the genes more.

In DH's family there is one section to whom it is common knowledge that a certain person was the chemist's daughter, whilst other close relatives deny it utterly.

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expatinscotland · 11/08/2005 08:08

Aw, that's sad. DD looks like her Daddy so much. I couldn't put one over on a man like DH, he's SUCH a beautiful person, he deserves his own kids. Just glad we could have them.

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suzywong · 11/08/2005 08:35

that's what I meant, don't have the articualte genes clearly

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MrsGordonRamsay · 11/08/2005 08:45

DS is a like a "mini-me" of his Dad so I am ok

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fairyfly · 11/08/2005 08:52

We live in hope

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Papillon · 11/08/2005 08:53

I recall reading recently about DNA and paternity

´Many children hava a combination fo genes which cannot be generated by combining those of their supposed parents. Usually they show that the biological father is not the male who is married to the biological mother. This is about 1 birth in 20.´

Steve Jones, the language of the genes

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Hulababy · 11/08/2005 08:53

So sad

DD may not look exactly like DH (some elements int here, but looks more like me) I can safely vouch that he IS her daddy 100%

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marthamoo · 11/08/2005 09:04

Hope dh doesn't see this. He's already seen "One in 3 Married Women Has an Affair" on the front of my Eve magazine (I got away with that one by pointing out that the same mag has an article on how stylish Sarah Jessica Parker always is, yeah right). Still the odds are better on this statistic.

Less flippantly - yes, it is very sad.

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moozoboozo · 11/08/2005 09:09

This is v sad.

There's no doubt where we are concerned though, DS is a carbon copy of DP at the same age, so I think there's no chance he's the milkmans!

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Raspberry · 11/08/2005 09:19

This is not a surprise to me, as I remember a study done by a hospital down south, a few years ago, which came up with a pretty similar statistic, after asking volunteers to have baby DNA screened. The hospital was worried about the repercussions of the research so cancelled it after 6mths or so

Looking at it objectively, its quite natural for a woman to want the best genetic father for her child, if that is not her dh or dp, then she may choose to go elsewhere

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monkeytrousers · 11/08/2005 09:42

fqueenzebra - it depends on which species of chimpanzee you are talking about, but generally they are all promiscuous. Bonobo females are in oestrus for several weeks in which time they will openly have sex with many or all males in the troop. I haven't read much Jane Goodall so I couldn't comment about extra-group activities. Gorillas have a harem set up with one male for several females but they do not have sex 'recreationally' as chimps would seem to do.

What I?m concerned about in this report is why was it conducted? As reported on the news it didn?t have much context at all and my first reaction was to think it was inflammatory. If the reason is to get more counselling services to men in this situation why wasn?t that mentioned in the news broadcast? I fear this is just another example of latent misogyny.

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Caligula · 11/08/2005 09:46

It's gone down. Didn't they used to say it was one in ten?

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Tinker · 11/08/2005 09:47

Do you think many of the men do know though?

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Fio2 · 11/08/2005 09:49

if a malke sparrow mates with a female sparrow and she isnt keen she spits out the sperm after he has finshed (spits out her doodar) and then mates with a male sparrow she actually wants to mate with

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Tinker · 11/08/2005 09:51

In the Indie today it said a lot of this information came to light after DNA test results following disasters. Searching for relatives and then fidning that they, erm, aren't relatives.

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acnebride · 11/08/2005 09:55

Natural for women to seek the 'best' partner, just as it is natural for men to head off with an 18 year old at regular intervals...

i hate nature sometimes. Love, ethics, civilisation rule...

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RachD · 11/08/2005 09:59

As Tinker says, tests done to help with disasters are obviously vital.
The article said some tests are done by child support agency, others to find health disorders.
Health too is cool.

But I suspect that the most rapid increase is due to fathers suspecting that they are not the real father.
They can go on the internet and get a test. A sample kit sent to father in post. Gets DNA from child (saliva?). Sends it off. Result sent back to dad.

Now that way of doing it/ reason for doing it, reeks of distrust.

How sad, that we all distrust eachother so much these days, that people start questioning whether 'their child is really theirs'.

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KeepingMum · 11/08/2005 10:03

One of the doctors at work told me that this is the reason they don't tell you your baby's blood group any more. Too many babies had blood groups that weren't compatible with the 'father'!

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RachD · 11/08/2005 10:06

keeping mum - I suppose that would kill the 'birth joy' a bit, wouldn't it.
How common is that scenario then , according to your Doctor friend ?

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