"Anyway, to put it bluntly, I fucking HATE kids, I don't even like my own that much"

Nice start.

"Why do people insist on taking kids on holiday before they reach 10? What’s the point? They won’t remember where you went "

My 8 year old son clearly remembers a holiday we went on when he was 3.

"just because some parents take their kids out of school so they can save a few quid by missing the rush, I think you should be fined if you do that!"

I genuinely agree with you there; kids should not be taken out of school for a holiday. My son's school actually disallows it, though I'm not sure how they enforce it.

"Supermarkets too, why can’t you go shopping whilst the kids are at school?"

How can you not spot the flaw in that question?

"I get mine once a month for the weekend and treat them to all sorts of stuff like, skating/bowling/cinema to educational stuff like the science museum or the zoo etc.. and the thanks I get? Fuck all!"

I don't want to get into the reason why you only see your kids once a month - I'm aware there are different circumstances where the reason for this isn't immediately apparent, and it's none of my fucking business to ask why this is the case, but despite all that, it's fair to say that looking after children almost constantly, compared to looking after them for just 48 hours a month is *drastically* different. You've got to deal with all sorts of other stuff. Whether you want to see your kids more than this or not is irrelevant to this particular discussion, but there's so much more to take into consideration for looking after them for the other 700-odd hours a month. All the "boring" stuff. Lots of little "menial" things that need doing. It isn't just about taking them out to enjoy themselves, you need to be able to deal with the 'crappy' stuff as well. After 48 hours you can just hand them back and let someone else deal with it. A friend of mine is in a situation where she's divorced and living with her 4 year old son. Her ex husband sees their son once a week (sundays from 10am-6pm on a good day) and has him stopping over at his one saturday a month, and even then her ex sees it as he's doing her a *favour* rather than taking on his responsibility. Any time she asks him for a little help that means he has to interrupt his precious schedule, he starts getting arsey (not just a one-sided story; i've witnessed it) but he's quite happy to arrange holidays for himself without checking with her first. Anything to do with the boy's regular life (school stuff, medical stuff, clothes and loads of other things) my friend has to deal with. All her ex has to do is just make sure he can think of somewhere to go once a week and prepare some clean bedsheets once a month.

By the way - this is nowhere near a rant on divorced dads, my parents divorced when I was 9, and I appreciate how hard it can be for a divorced dad to get things sorted, but he had me and my sister overnight twice a week, and was always involved in our lives.

If you're trying to get access to your kids more than once a month - kudos to you for that, and I hope you manage to succeed if you're putting the effort in, but you'll have to pardon my cynicism due to your opening salvo about not particularly liking your own kids.

Your message doesn't seem like a discussion about kids, it just seems like an angry, bitter rant because things haven't gone your way.

Good luck. (not being sarcastic BTW)
( Mike Fishcake teamfishcake.co.uk - better than your mum's face, Mon 21 Apr 2008, 16:38, Reply)