Leon's Random Ramblings

It’s been ten good years.

For 10 years, this is where I came when I saw some injustice happen to children, especially children who are vulnerable from parents who are unable to resolve their own differences and let the children suffer with their fighting.

But recently I have come to the conclusion that there is something more to my commitment. It feels stronger than ever, but it also feels like it needs to grow. Much more than just the previous narrow view. Maybe it was driven by the fact that I was talking to my children, now that they are older, about their life experiences. I’ve also been counselling a few people when they asked me to. And I’ve been a proud foster dad to some really cute animals in distress.

So I will continue to come back here to write when I have to. It cleanses the soul. But to keep it aligned with my new vision I’m moving the entire blog to a new home at Modiredi where it rightfully belongs. There I can talk about more than just divorce and pain, and I have started adding social media to the list. Facebook and Instagram and twitter are all new homes – look for Modiredi.

Thank you for reading and here is the link to the new home: Modiredi

July 5th, 2018 | Tags: Children's Rights, Divorce, Memories, Parenting | Category: Children's Rights, Family, Personal | Comments Off on Moving to a New Home

Daddy’s Girl
I fondly remember my little one’s birth, 15 years ago, and I remember how she already held my thumb with her tiny little fingers when she was only a few hours old. My love for her hasn’t changed at all, not even during her dark teenage years. To quote from searchquotes “They say that from the instant he lays eyes on her, a father adores his daughter. Whoever she grows up to be, she is always to him that little girl in pigtails. She makes him feel like Christmas. In exchange, he makes a secret promise not to see the awkwardness of her teenage years, the mistakes she makes or the secrets she keeps.“. She is a strong girl with her Daddy’s genes and I am so proud of her that she is able to survive the storms that broke around her since the divorce and that she still has to witness every day.

Fast forward to today – 15 years later – and I was reading a news article in City Press – SA’s divorce law fails good dads this morning.

I might have written the article myself. The director of the Justice and Reconciliation Centre, a non-governmental organisation that seeks to protect children and preserve families in high conflict divorces, Errol Goetsch, coined the term “the windmill” for situations like the one I found myself facing many years ago when I was unexpectedly and out of the blue served with divorce papers on one cold winters’ morning while leaving the house to go to work.

The package the sheriff served on me was an ugly cocktail of protection orders, eviction orders and several sworn statements. I was accused of potentially violent behaviour because I might be upset by the divorce and accused of possibly sexual violence with my daughter. I was given 3 days to vacate the erstwhile marriage home and the protection order prevented me from talking to my work colleagues whom I have been working with for 26 years! Including the minister of my church!

Imagine both my hands being tied behind my back while being slapped in the face!

I am so deeply aligned with Goetsch, who wrote about the sequence of preplanned dirty tricks using violence, clever tactical accusations with no substance that was ever allowed to be tested in Court, and obstructing and frustrating access to the children for whatever gain I fail to understand as the children are ultimately suffering the most.

I particularly connected to the sentence where Goetsch says: “For girls, it’s the sexual violence windmill … allegations that this sort of abuse is being carried out by the father (and) an interim protection order is granted on the basis of only an affidavit with no further proof needed … and the father is evicted from the house and denied contact“. He continues to outline the scenario where a paid social worker prepares an obviously one-sided report which further shackles an already disabled father.

Bingo.

This must be the ugliest law in South Africa where a person is found guilty on the basis of hearsay and a simple statement, without the police investigating a single thread of evidence. The abuse of this law by is rife with devastating consequences to the children who sometimes suffer from life-long afflictions.

Happily, time is a great healer and as the children grow up many of them begin to see the aggressor parent for what they really are. Maybe the “violent parent” that was posited is not violent after all, or whatever the allegations were. Fifteen years later my little girl is still holding my hand albeit it with the awkwardness that come with teenagering. In any case it seems like children continues to love both parents despite the unrealistic and unbalanced view they might be gaslighted with.

In 15 years the law hasn’t changed for the better, according to Goetsch’s research, and it seems like this is the new normal. I don’t feel alone any more, thank you sir!

But somehow if you just love your children unconditionally, and you let them know every day, even though you can’t pull up the blanket over them at night, they seem resilient enough to kick back with love for both parents. And that is good enough for me.

June 20th, 2018 | Tags: Big Questions, Divorce, False Accusations, musing, Parenting, Unfaithful | Category: Children's Rights, Karma, Life Questions, Personal | Comments Off on In 15 years, nothing has changed

My Heart Will Go On
I am a child of the ’50s and ’60s and so as a first time parent during the ’70s there were a couple of things I feared for my children. Outwardly I felt completely confident in my ability to handle every normal growing up condition my children could present to me with with the help of the latest antibiotics and a proper smack. After all, what else could go wrong?

But regardless of how much I protected her and kept her away from harm and other boys, deep inside my heart I knew that one day my daughter will meet another man to take my place. And I also knew that he would not touch her in any indecent way or make any inappropriate suggestions and that he would honour her honour with his life, etc etc etc.

I did not bargain on the incredibly remote possibility that she might be the one that would initiate those horrible carnal activities herself. I didn’t raise her like that!

So it came as a complete surprise to me when she announced to me one day: “I am moving in with Mr X” (name witheld to protect the innocent). How could she! What happened to all those years I cared for her and protected her and taught her to be a strong and independent woman who could look after herself! Oh the pain!

Like I said, at the time I was blinded by my selfish attitude and self-inflicted pain and I didn’t see the truth of what she was saying. That in fact she was now an adult and more than capable of making her own decisions, and in particular to love the man she chose in the manner she chooses. All I know is I felt my Parenting was a total waste.

Fast forward some years to today. My son, who is as close to me as my daughter is, called me a few weeks ago to tell me that his marriage is on the rocks and he just wanted to hear his Dad say that everything is going to be ok. He told me he was devastated by the unfolding events. I could empathise with him because I had also experienced the rejection of a loved one many years ago. The strong and confident young man I loved to watch when he was growing up sat before me in a crumpled heap and cried. And again I felt my Parenting had come to naught.

We talked, we visited, we commisserated, we shared anecdotes. I knew from my own experience that time was the only thing that will bring perspective. Patiently I walked the slow road with him when he needed to talk. And slowly I could see him sorting through the bits of his life he wanted to keep, discarding the pieces that reminded him of her. I liked the fact that he was willing to take responsibility and control and that he packed his stuff and organised his life to move on. He didn’t miss a day from work. He started to look for a place to stay. It took him a while to go from “We” to “I” but he got there.

And then, one day while we were chatting about where he is going to stay now, he casually dropped the following sentence: “This weekend I’m moving in with Myself“. It struck me as a profound statement filled with so much promise of healing that I want to share it.

Clearly he is beginning to understand that he must discover himself again, that he must furnish his place with items that he enjoys, that he must surround himself with the things that he likes. If ever he wants to enter into a relationship again, he will have to find out who he is and what he is, first. I liked his statement very much and I recognised it one of the first steps he must take to a full recovery and hopefully a new love.

Maybe I didn’t do such a bad job of parenting strong and confident children after all.

May 1st, 2018 | Category: Family, Karma, Life Questions, Personal | Comments Off on I am moving in with … Myself