My kids don't go back and forth; none of this 50/50 time with the mums and dads. My children live with me; that is it.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I probably spend more time with my kids than the average stay-at-home mother.
I have my kids every Friday through Monday, and I don't leave them the whole time I have them.
My kids are so much better parent than I was.
When you have kids, you instantly feel that you do not want to do them wrong. Those dads that go off to Florida and start a new life, I couldn't imagine that: seeing my kid once every Christmas, every three years. If I'm gone for six days it feels like too much.
I try and spend a lot of time with my kids. I try and have fun with my kids. I try to put father time in there.
What I do, it's part of my job, but you want to bring your kids up the right way and give them everything - to be there for them and have that connection.
Once your kids get older and get out of the house, it's not like it stops. They're on the phone with me every day; I'm intimately involved in their problems.
Even though your kids will consistently do the exact opposite of what you're telling them to do, you have to keep loving them just as much.
Very often when you see families it's all perfect and neat, and parenting isn't like that. You do have constant negotiations. Things are ever developing and ever changing, and you constantly have to evaluate how you deal with your kids.
There were so many occasions when I wasn't around for my kids or my husband. But we learnt to work around it.