Mother insists she is a father and nags school board to prove it

Fatherhood Banned Here

A father-son bonding session planned by a North Island primary school was cancelled after a single mother demanded to be included. Two "Band of Brothers" seminars were arranged by Matakana School to help fathers get more involved in their sons' lives, and as a forum for dads to share their issues. One session was for dads and another was for fathers and sons. A solo mum wanted to attend but was told she couldn't because her presence would inhibit discussion. She was told a mother and son seminar was planned for later in the year.

"We really just wanted an opportunity for the guys to open up and chat, and they wouldn't particularly want to do if there were females around - which I think is understandable," said principal Darrel Goosen.

The woman's son was welcome at the second seminar and the guest speaker offered a specific session with her and her son but she continued to insist on attending, Goosen said, so the school board decided to cancel the event.

A solo mother wanted to pretend to be a father. She isn't, wouldn't accept a compromise, so the event got cancelled. I think the mother was in the wrong here. Fathers are different from mothers, and mother and father provide complementary roles. The fact that many people view the terms as interchangeable, or irrelevant, or "discriminatory" is a sad indictment on society, and she comes out looking like a nagging shrew guilty of the sin of envy.

What is also poor was the reaction of the school board, not only cancelling the seminar rather than just turning her away, but then issuing an apology: "In hindsight we realise we may have offended some single parents, for which we apologise, as this was never our intention," said a school note to families. . Fantastic - it's now somehow offensive to organise father-son events, and to trumpet a two parent family in the face of a single parent family (although even then, I note the father could be living apart and such events like this may help improve contact between father and son - but it sounds like for this particular mother, the father isn't around).

Cancelling the event because of this one women's complaining is absolutely ridiculous, and the school board should be fired for its capitulation to political correctness.

Unfortunately, I suspect that this kind of issue will never arise again with this school board - having run into a smidgen of conflict, they show they will abandon all principles, and were not really genuine about running such positive programmes, and instead will quietly squash all future initiatives. Because they are wimps. This is the NZ we are building. Shame on them.

Father-Son event cancelled after mother nags school board and they wimp out