I'm as mad as Hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!

The following is recommended viewing by most Fathers Rights Advocates. We concur with the newscasters advice. If you remember this came from the 1976 movie Network. Peter Finch won the Academy Award largely for this scene. Sidney Lumet Directed and it was written by Paddy Chayefsky. It was one of those watershed movies a classic of its time but still relevant today. For trivia buffs parts of it were filmed at CFTO in Agincourt (Toronto, ON)MJM

In Western OZ ~ More reports of WA mothers mistreating children

Comments that were left on site. The data are consistent with those published by the USA government for a great number of years. The victim oriented feminist, Angela Hartwig, being quoted here is trying to deflect the fact the child abuse in almost all cases occurs in single parent female environments and also can be exacerbated with the live in boyfriend. The DV excuse is just that. In most countries including Canada and the USA intimate partner abuse is pretty much equal. In one peer reviewed study by the Center for Disease Control in the USA 71% if the initiators of violence were females. The safest place for children is in a two parent biological family, in a shared/equal parenting environment of the bio mom and dad or with dad. Its high time the propaganda elicited by people like Hartwig was debunked. I made a followup on July 21, 2009 in response to a myth often entertained by victim feminists. Ashakara has trotted out the old canard used in North America that more contact = more abuse. Fathers are mostly kept out of the lives of their children by gatekeeping mothers and family courts whose judges are the largest group of social engineers on children in most western style democracies. To deduce more contact = more abuse requires peer reviewed studies and I suggest you are trying to produce another myth out of thin air. The fact that children do more poorly on a wide variety of social parameters, not just abuse, in single family female homes is statistically significant but does not apply to all of that cohort. Many children thrive and do well in single parent homes for a variety of reasons. Here are a few of the other negative social outcomes in single parent female households validated by peer reviewed studies. These are from North America: 63% of all youth suicides, 70% of all teen pregnancies, 71% of all adolescent chemical/substance abusers, 80% of all prison inmates, 60% of all rapists, 72% of juvenile murderers, 90% of welfare recipients are single mothers. and 90% of all homeless and runaway children came from single mother homes. This is just a small portion of the problem. Shared and equal parenting, 50-50 where appropriate including residency has to be the standard.MJM

Nick Taylor

July 18, 2009 06:00pm

THE number of WA mothers reported for abusing their children has leapt in the past two years.

Figures from the Department for Child Protection, obtained by The Sunday Times, show the number of mothers believed responsible for "substantiated maltreatment'' has risen from 312 to 427. In the same period - 2005-06 to 2007-08 - the number of fathers reported for child abuse dropped from 165 to 155. A breakdown of all family-based child abuse shows and increase from 960 to 1505 last year. Michael Woods, of the University of Western Sydney, said the data ``debunked a common misconception about fathers and violence''. Dr Woods, who is also a co-director of the university-based Men's Information and Resource Centre said: ``The figures undermine the myth that fathers are the major risk for their children's well being. ``The data is not surprising. It is in line with the international findings regarding perpetrators of child abuse.'' He said previous practices of lumping together de factos, live-in boyfriends and overnight male guests with fathers as male carers had ``skewed beliefs'' about who abused children. Angela Hartwig, executive officer of the Women's Council for Domestic and Family Violence Services WA, said the increases were a concern, but child abuse, neglect and domestic and family violence could be reported in several ways. ``Because the woman is so often the primary care-giver she is held as being responsible for the neglect,'' she said. ``This could also explain why there is such a high number of neglect cases against women, as the data only shows the first person believed responsible. ``The statistics do not show the strong correlation that where there is child abuse there is often domestic and family violence and the women may be the victim of the abuse. ``If she is a victim of domestic and family violence, a woman has very little power to change the situation. ``It is difficult for a woman to provide for children when living with an abusive partner who has total control of all decisions made, which includes controlling the finances.'' http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,25802810-2761,00.html

In Western OZ ~ Dads not the Demons

Author: Micheal Woods

20 July 2009 Recent data from the Department of Child Protection in Western Australia (WA) has debunked a common misconception about fathers and violence. The data shows that natural mothers are far more likely to abuse children than their natural fathers, other than in sexual abuse, where mothers were responsible for only 13% of cases. The past practice of lumping together de factos, live-in boyfriends and overnight male guests together with fathers as "male carers" has led to skewed beliefs about who abuses children. In releasing these recent figures that identify natural fathers separately, the DCP has provided a clearer picture of who is likely to abuse children. The figures - obtained under Freedom of Information provisions - provide a clearer picture of who is likely to abuse children in families. The data show that there were 1505 substantiations of child abuse in WA during 2007-8. Natural parents were responsible for 37% of total cases. Of these, mothers are identified as the perpetrator of neglect or abuse in 73% of cases, including over 50% of cases of physical abuse. The accompanying graph shows the breakdown of parents responsible for each form of abuse. Chart: Child Abuse - Proportion of Mothers or Fathers as Perpetrators by Type of Abuse Micheal Woods, an academic from the University of Western Sydney, said: "The data is not surprising - it is in line with international findings regarding perpetrators of child abuse. And the figures do undermine the myth that fathers are the major risk for their children's well-being". The release of this data is timely, and shows the need for solid evidence in developing legislation and policies affecting families. Recently, some radical groups have attacked the Family Court for its role in encouraging shared parenting after separation, claiming that this placed children at risk from violent fathers. Selected instances where fathers have harmed children were used to suggest that this is a common occurrence, and that shared parenting legislation placed children at increased risk. However, this newly available information demonstrates that while there are some abusive fathers, there are in fact a larger proportion of violent and abusive mothers. This should not mean that children are automatically placed into the care of fathers to reduce risks of abuse, but rather that unrepresentative anecdotes of violent fathers should not influence legislation and policies designed to protect children. The difficult task faced by the Family Court in trying to ensure the best interests of children should not be compounded by irrational fear mongering, but rather by a considered examination of the evidence. Shared parenting may be inconvenient for one parent, or even unwanted, but with changing social roles many more men after separation want to be actively involved in their children's lives. And in the vast majority of cases, their children will be very safe in their care. http://www.familylawwebguide.com.au/news/pg/news/view/700/index.php&filter=

Related Article: 'More reports of WA mothers mistreating children'

Please also read the related article published on the weekend in PerthNow: More reports of WA mothers mistreating children, by Nick Taylor