What Is a Father Supposed to Do When He’s Shut Out of His Child’s Life?

Apr 04, 2025

∙ Paid

A wide emotional and dramatic banner image for an article about a father's struggle to maintain a relationship with his young son. The scene shows a father standing alone in the rain on one side of a sports field, watching from a distance as his young son plays soccer with other children. The mother stands nearby but deliberately turns her back to the father, symbolizing alienation and lack of communication. The father's side is dark, cloudy, and rainy, while the child's side is sunny and bright, showing the emotional contrast. The image should evoke sadness, frustration, and the theme of parental alienation. Include no text.

What is a father supposed to do?

I ask that not rhetorically, but from the depths of my soul. I ask it as a father whose heart breaks a little more each day he's cut out of his son's life — not by accident, not by circumstance — but by deliberate, calculated choices made by someone who once swore to parent beside me. A mother who refuses to communicate. …

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