Being a single father

I was a single father from the time my daughter was 21 months until I remarried when she was 6. I then had another daughter and after the divorce I am now a single father again of two daughters, 11 and 3. I am surprised at how many programs and help a single mother can get but there is very little out there offered to me and my daughters. When I was younger and had a 21 month old I was also very poor. I went to the local WIC office and when I asked if I could apply I was told, "Its WOMEN, Infants and Children." After a few weeks of letters to higher people in the organization and a couple of weeks I was told that I would be able to get WIC benefits for my daughter. That helped out a little. Then came the battle of Child Support. I was working full time in an area that I had no relatives and payed almost half my paycheck for daycare. adparams.getadspec('c_billboard1'); The court ordered my daughters mother to pay me child support. After a year of not receiving any I decided it was time to press the issue. I ended up getting in touch with the child support enforcement organization in the county and asked them what was going on. I knew that there were laws that said a parent will lose their drivers license if they do not pay child support. I was told, "She is a mother of another child and since her husband in the military she is the primary care giver of that child. We can not take her drivers license away or she would not be able to get her other child to doctors appointments or get groceries." It was soon after this that I joined an organization that was fighting for fathers rights. But unfortunatly I was a father with custody and wasn't really what they were there for. 9 years later I still have not received any child support. Now lets jump to two years ago, I received primary physical custody of my younger daughter after the divorce. I live in one state and my ex-wife lives in another. My Daughter was 23 months old at the time. I have been trying to get child support for the past year and do to Paperwork problems or my ex-wife contesting the court child support decisions have been getting put on hold for this time. So I am now raising my daughters as a single father with one income, over $600 a month in daycare costs. I have to take vacation days every time they have a doctors appointment and I just found out that I need to come up with $5000 for braces on my oldest. It is now christmas time so I asked the Orthodontist if it would be possible to gift wrap the braces since I have $45 to buy christmas presents this year. So I have been a Single father in the late 90's and after a short break with some help I am now a single father a decade later. I no longer need to worry about it but when my oldest daughter was in Diapers the biggest proble I had was finding a place in public to change the Diaper. There were many times I would go to the manager of a store because there was not a Diaper changing table in the mens bathroom. After Diapers I would get funny looks when I would walk into a mens bathroom with a little girl in pig tails so she could use the rest room, more time than I can count I would have to leave because the bathroom was disgusting so I wouldn't let my daughter sit on the toilet. I have noticed this second time around that more mens bathrooms have diaper changing tables, I know this is something little but to me it is a huge battle against the stereotype of Men. We also take care of our children. On the opposite side of things I still have a hard time getting support from either of the mothers. I can not stand hearing how much bigger their house is than mine and I really hate the fact that my children come home from a visit and talk about thier trip to an amusement park. Here I am shopping at the Salvation Army, eating mac and cheese with hot dogs. All I can think is how much better my daughters lives would be with a couple of mothers that would actually help me.