Reply #48: Having been a single father...

[The Doctor.]

I have to agree.

The miscreants who knock a girl up and walk away taint fatherhood all-around.

I raised my son until he was five. Then after finishing school, the mother came back for custody.

I had a better situation, a better school system, and she had CCD and OCD (compulsive control, and obsessive compulsive disorders).

Because of the negative view of fathers held by so many, she had little difficulty portraying me as abusive and irresponsible... even when psyche tests showed otherwise.

But I do know what happened - the Psychologist switched our MMPI profiles. Why?

Because, I test more diplomatic and eccentric, she tests with control and anger disorders... he put my results in her file because they were more 'feminine' and her results in my file because they seemed more 'masculine'.

I didn't figure out what had happened or why the shrink made the recommendations to the judge that he did, but no one would look into it when I told them because I was 'just trying to exert control'.

I watched for four years while the hair fell out of his head in clumps every year. They couldn't figure out what the problem was, one doctor after another just scratched his head. When I told them that it was a psychosomatic condition induced by stress, she said I was 'just going after her'.

The hair hasn't fallen out in a year now, but I know what he has to put up with from his mother... I just hope I can do damage control, I'll always be here for him.

That is why I hate deadbeats - they make it easy for others to ignore the real fathers.