Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we ad-lib to conceive…
Single mom wants baby.
But she’s on a budget, so sperm donor is out of the question.
So she goes the way of “ex-boyfriend with benefits” – sorta – she pays him $1400 for his “service”
– you know his guy friends were fist bumping, “Duuuuuddddeee! Score!”
For the next three years, she allows her daughter’s father (ex-boyfriend with paid benefits) to visit his daughter.
When her daughter is three years old, mom dies of cancer. Absolutely horrible for such a young child to lose a parent…but because of her non-traditional family, insult is added to injury as an ugly custody battle ensues: (emphasis mine)
The ex-boyfriend of the deceased single mother then entered the scene to make a parental claim for the young girl, arguing that he was her legal father. The case appeared before a Quebec court. The ex-boyfriend won a paternity ruling from the Quebec Court of Appeal last year, and that ruling was upheld last month when the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear an appeal of the case.
Michael Lubetsky, the lawyer who represented the girl’s grandparents at the appeal court, told the National Post that it is a parent’s “worst nightmare” that a biological parent can “show up and start asserting rights over the child.”
“That’s incredibly disruptive…. It’s an attack on the family structure,” he said.
I had to read that a few times and wonder, “Have we gotten to the point that we are saying that with a straight face?” An attack on the family structure? WHAT FAMILY “STRUCTURE” ARE WE TALKING ABOUT HERE?
Structure, loosely defined, is something made up of parts, held or put together in a particular way.
Structure
Not stucture
This is what happens when we start tinkering with a STRUCTURE that has been in place and worked for thousands of years. When we embark in a DIY “structure” it all comes crashing down on us, sooner or later. And the children are the ones who get crushed.
UPDATE: linked by Lin at No One of Any Import and a Recommended Read of Pundette’s! Thanks!
Politicaljunkie Mom 
[…] A parent’s worst nightmare…? […]
Yeah. Anything goes. I suspect that the child is probably better off with grandparents, given how there are two of them.
Interesting. I wonder why she didn’t just marry the guy. maybe he was a loser. who wants to have a kid with a loser? And we wonder why people continue to elect Democrats.
[…] and kids” thing is so restrictive. Flexibility would be best, no? No. Teaching My Two packs a punch: “This is what happens when we start tinkering with a STRUCTURE that has been in place and […]
Excellent post, TmT!
How incredibly sad for the little girl. And how true: when we tear up the rules, there are consequences beyond what we can see…