Men, I have full custody of my first son.  In nine years of raising him, I kept myself out of the family court system. A testimony of my own ability as a father. I married, had another child and sadly, like in that quote in my part one article (Single Fathers Fighting For Custody: Understanding Divorce), I was suddenly flattened one day with divorce papers.  I should have seen it coming, but honestly I didn't.  That is another story.  My point is that I have two son's of which I'm still a full time father.  I'm in the fight of my life for one of them.  But the present situation is not as bad as what it could be.  I feel lucky while I read so many articles about how men are just getting ripped to shreds in the court system.  I look at my own situation which should have been open and shut, but has been made cloudy for what should be obvious reasons to you other men in custody battles. 

I'm lucky.  And I' reminded of how lucky I am when I read stories like this:

When the weather breaks and it's cold outside I drive my oldest son to school even though the school is in our neighborhood.   I sit other parents children in the morning before school too, so it makes sense.    It's a ritual, each morning he gets out of the car and his little brother yells, "I love you D! Have a nice day at school!"  He's strapped into his car seat so he can't see behind his window but he can hear his brother answer back.

Today it's nuts cold out.  The car seats are heated... the car is warm.  We pull up to the sidwalk where two of his teachers are always opening car doors for kids.   He cracks a joke... "Awww it's hot in my car!"  Meanwhile his teacher is muttering back in a appreciation of his dry humor, "Don't talk to me about heat D!"  To rub it in, his little brother chimes in, "Man it's hot in my car!"  I drive away laughing.