Dear editor
EVERY child is a blessing and should be treated as such, whether the parents are together or not.
In most cases, that is not the case for most single parents whether male or female as the responsibility of parenting is left for only one part, but they all come to claim the child at some point.
Taking care of a child single-handedly is not easy, especially if you don’t have good financial muscle.
The child needs much more than the K300 or K500 that we often get to hear in the court ruling as monthly support.
And the question I ask myself all the time is whether the K300 is for diapers or it is for food, perhaps medical bills or just clothes.
You can’t look at only one area of need and ignore the other because all the areas are needed for the child to grow.
While the responsibility of taking care of the child is for both parents, the person taking care of the child mostly puts in 90 percent, if not 100 percent.
Government should come up with strict laws to reduce on the numbers of children suffering in the country.
Men in the habit of impregnating and leaving the responsibility of child care, emotionally and financially to the woman, should be made to pay handsomely by the courts of law, if not jailed.
It is because they are charged K300 that they gather the courage to impregnate many ladies and can afford it.
And let the law be flexible to those women who would want to change the child’s last name because no child deserves to carry the name of an underserving father.
The thought of a woman breaking her back and cracking her brain running around to provide for the child only for one man to come later and claim that he is the father is annoying.
And as a single parent with an irresponsible baby daddy, I speak on behalf of other ladies going through the same stress. ‘Boma Iyanganepo’.
FRUSTRATED SINGLE MOTHER