Vikas' Story
Father’s Day has always been a significant event for me since the birth of my only daughter, my Princess – Kiara, from the moment she was born, more than any other occasion in the year. I absolutely adore and love her to bits and have been a very hands on dad since birth. I was present at the birth (a natural birth) and saw her first before cutting the umbilical chord and passing her to her mum. That moment has to be the best moment of my life, and I am sure any dad who has been there would say there is nothing that can top this.
Things became very difficult and the ex (who has an amazing professional career going for her since she married me and came to this country) became extremely controlling of Kiara and aggressive post birth which I still can’t understand, suggested her therapy, etc but she didn’t want to undertake any.
It came to a point when I couldn’t take it anymore and proposed separation /divorce and parent our daughter equally and give her a fulfilling life as separated parents like many other couples who amicably separate do. I filed for a divorce as she wanted to continue living in this broken marriage and I didn’t.
Unfortunately she didn’t take this very well and said I can’t have her for equal time as in his country “fathers only her every other weekend and half of holidays”. When she said this and I did my research, unfortunately I found out that this was sadly true for many dads. Still my heart didn’t allow me to be a weekend dad for my Princess. I wanted to do be part of every aspect of her upbringing as I had been. She had just turned 5 then.
I proposed mediation to come to an agreement but she rejected and filed for full custody. After 2-3 years in Family courts and 8 hearings overcoming several false allegations – self representing while ex had solicitor and barrister going for her, my perseverance paid off and now we have 50/50 for last 2 years which has been brilliant for Kiara as she spends equal time with both parents which could have been agreed at the very beginning. But perhaps it was the test I had to overcome to prove that a Dad is equally if not more important in a child’s life. Everything else in life – career, finances, etc took a major setback as the only thing I decided to focus on was my daughter and being in her life. This picture is on her 8th Birthday- just me and her having her favourite meal in her favourite restaurant ❤️
If you are a dad reading this, give your child/ren unconditional love and support no matter what comes your way. If you are a mum reading this, hope you have encouraged a relationship with the dad (if he doesn’t want to be involved then that’s a different thing). Happy Father’s Day ❤️#DadsMatter #HappyFathersDay #NeverGiveUp