I wanted to come back and add that the hurt of what happened with my son may never fully go away. I'm only saying that, for now, I am at peace within myself over it. I, like my dad, will love my son forever, whatever his faults (or my own).

And you are right Sam about the hurt that is inflicted in vindication of perceived wrongs. It two takes two adults fully capable of honest communication to make whats best of a failed marriage involving children. When one half fails it nearly becomes an impossible task. In my case, we both failed. I have not degraded his mother and will not. In fact I took all the blame on myself. That was a mistake. The most I have said since was to say that it wasnt very loving of them (mother and step dad) to plant the seed in his mind that his biological father is crazy. Now he can worry if its hereditary and he just had his first daughter. He emailed me that he didnt want me stalking his facebook page to look at her .

Why does society favor mothers? Its anybodys guess and of course there are exceptions. I think it is partially due to the traditional thinking of father as the breadwinner, the hunter; mother the nurse, home keeper. The thinking follows that women are better at child raising. In some cases. Fathers are also typically considered to be the aggressors which is not always the case either.