Yes *ShayMitch* I think *Lexie* makes a number of valid points, though I would add that it sounds like the particular principal in question was deserving of a beating too.

I mySelf was awarded a place at a prominent private methodist church school based upon my entrance exam scores and suffice to say that I would never send any child under my care to any form of church based school, especially a single sex one, in the absence of other seriously compelling reasons.

*Diver Dan* to suggest that primordial instincts will always over ride personal cognition is in my experience grossly incorrect. For example, my primordial instincts in the past, and verily my personal desire nature, would have led me to savagely assault my biological father, however, I stayed my hand on more than one occasion out of regard for the potential consequences of the law.

Re alcohol, whilst I acknowledge recent medical testimony visa vi the connection between alcohol and cancer, I favor the occasional tipple as part of my stress management routine.

Whilst you appear to have some awareness of psychology, you do not appear to fully appreciate psychiatric principals and I assure you, for my kind, we require substance to engineer so to speak a relatively stable and functional state of consciousness. Without substance (chemically induced happiness) I would suffer on an ongoing and continual basis, the likes of which I had no real conception of in advance of the experience.

And I did suffer, for some 3.5 years or so, until I managed to find my way back to the people and services that could assist in the process of my healing, as no one came to my aid in that regard.

Still, that does not make me a *Sociopath* as *AntiSpetic* would have you believe, and I consider that he may be simply projecting his hatred of his wife's new partner onto me and something of what *Diver Dan* has expressed appears to be relevant in his particular case.

*AntiSeptic* based upon your half witted basesless characterisations, it becomes increasingly clear as to possible underlying reasons for your previous relationship breaking down. You may care to look at yourself for the fault in that regard instead of trying to blame others for your misfortune.

From my point of view, if you Luv someone, then you must allow them to be totally free, which includes them withdrawing their Luv for you and choosing to Luv someone else. If you are unable to do that, then I suggest that you never truly Luved your former partner. Likewise with your children, as they may prefer your wife's new partner, if she has one.

My biological father I suspect does not believe that he has ever done anything wrong, and he retains a great hatred for my Step Father, whom he blames for my biological mother leaving him. For some reason, his drunken, drugged, abusive, neglectful womanising does not seem to figure into his thinking. As a child in my experience, one is inclined to forgive and forget, but as I have matured, more and more that which he inflicted upon us becomes fouler in my mind and now, I simply have nothing to do with him. In fact, unless I am going to visit someone else, I don't think that I will even bother to stop to p!ss on his grave if I live to see that day.

Further, I am not a boyfriend, but rather lawful spouse of nearly 6 years and my Step Daughter calls me Dad. She was too young to remember her biological father, but in time and subject to her mother's approval, she will be informed. I am a strong advocate of transparency and accountability and seek to lift people up with knowledge, not to hide things and take advantage of them as people familiar with me ought be aware, and by co-incidence if nothing else, I too was born under the Aquarian star.

Well DreamOn:

…I remain impressed with your honesty and willingness to discuss a personal (and painful) past. This discussion adequately exposes the irreparable harm of child abuse (whatever form it may take), your own frankness included. Like you say, whatever works for you is the way to go. I am personally not a believer in “debatable benefits” of alcohol: And retain that belief by day to day reinforcement from those trapped in the “Benefit-Fallacy” of self-medication. I believe it to be a nonsense sales gimmick promoted by distributors of alcohol, of which there are way too many in our communities.

…And true to say it is, I do not dwell inside the academic square of thought; and strive to remain a free thinker. To be human gives me the right and privilege to analyse human psychology from my angle. Not many would read my books, but I remain convinced by personal logic, the true way to happiness is to “Know Thineself”

Aaah, now we appear to be seeing more my kind of *Christ Mass* presents:

1. Positive movements towards liberating Gay people from the oppression of 2nd class status and a reinvigoration and renewal of the "Right to Love"

2. My daughter received some great SIEMENS products from the guvna recently, a fact about which she is most thrilled.

3. She also received a specialist teacher who visits once a week.

4. Additional specialist reports to assist both us and the school with advanced tailored teaching recommendations have also been made available.

5. Out of here and off to Indo for 5 - 6 week's rest and recuperation soon and some decent international news from the internationals' perspective.

6. The beginnings of desisting from persecuting minors and some great work in there from Legal Aid W.A. to the members in the following article to others I know not - well done, great work:

http://www.iinet.net.au/customers/news/article.php?section=latest&articleid=3707326

..

Still, I wish to see the bar held high on the guvment as following seeing a bit of Immigration Nation, I was left feeling that despite some positive developments, that we're still a bit behind the ball so to speak.

Simply, there is no reason for us to harm people unnecessarily, be it by neglect or otherwise visa vi Asylum seekers, kids locked up, the mentally ill, BlakFellas, or many others who I should perhaps be aware of but am not.

..

re: this thread, I note further that I had a number of addittional father figures, all of who made a contribution, and also some very capable female figures. Re:Kids, I think its also important to have a good range of "good people" in varying orbits. Some qualities after all transcend gender do they not?

..

I enjoyed something of *Mr Falkner's* speech today at the A.L.P. conference. I am reminded as physically speaking he looks like he came out of a related mould to my Step Father - square features, lots of shaving required ;-)

I hate sweeping statements. I come from a single parent family, and my siblings and I are all fairly high achievers, in long-term relationships and mostly have families of our own. I can also rattle off many names of delinquent boys and girls from dual parent families. IMO it is entirely dependant on the mix of care and discipline that is provided by parents. In my case my husband chooses to have little involvement with our children (despite living in the same house), so I tend to provide both (as did my parent obviously).

I'd like to see some research on whether tendencies to misbehave are more affected by the behaviour of the parents (note that I say behaviour and not genetics). Where a father is completely absent, it has got to be highly likely that either the father is a complete no-good, or the mother is (and hence father wants nothing to do with her). Either situation is likely to have a negative impact on the children, who are likely to emulate the behaviours they observe later in life.