Matilda's Birthday

Matty Dancing
It was my daughter Matilda’s birthday yesterday. I wasn’t at the party. I wasn’t asked. Not because I am a horrendous father who takes no interest in his daughter or because her mother hates my guts, she doesn’t we have, now, a working relationship – I pay her money – I see my daughter occasionally.

I see my daughter every other weekend. When I lived closer, before they moved away, I saw her every Thursday night, every other weekend and sometimes other times as well, such as when her mother needed a babysitter on spec.

I don’t have any legal obligations over my daughter, because first and foremost I was not married to her mother, so I am not a ‘legal’ father I am simply a ‘biological’ father. The only ‘rights’ I have over my daughter is that, should I fail to pay the money the Government tells me to pay every month, they would take the money straight out of my salary. I give more for my daughter than the government tells me to.

Matilda’s mother, should she wish to, could become a Jehovah’s witness over night and then refuse my daughter the life saving blood transfusions should it ever –(God forbid) come to that – and I could not say one word. My opinion or attempt to get involved is totally invalid and indeed illegal.

Over the last two years Matilda’s mother has attempted suicide on at least four occasions. And I still am not a ‘responsible parent’ – O I know that if I wanted to I could go to a solicitor and pay him to make the court make me into a responsible father, or I could simply submit the papers myself (downloaded from the internet) pay the £60 and its pretty much guaranteed that the court would grant me the role of ‘parental responsibility’, but that only gives me a say so in her schooling and her medical health and so on, it does not mean that I have much more than I have now. So we must wait.

So my role is to take part in 15% of my daughter’s life. About 50-60 odd days a year. And yesterday she was 6.

So here are six things about Matilda

1. She’s Beautiful
2. She was born on the side of the road in Sunny Devon amongst the primroses.
3. She’s Marvellous
4. She Loves Barbie
5. She’s Wonderful
6. And she’s Mine!


Happy Birthday Matilda!