Friday, February 07, 2020

Unfashionable to expect much from husbands

A husband making a fleeting appearance at the very end of this story took me by surprise.
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I also commented on that.

Why does he bear no responsibility for the grown-up daughter? Is it not his child?

An explanation would have gone a long way - but journalists don't seem to ask those questions.

10:25 AM
Mark Wahlberg said...

Lindsay, perhaps Barney is the husband of the mother but not the father of the daughter?
News story aside, I wonder what the true story is?

10:31 AM
Lindsay Mitchell said...

Mark, There was a time when a man would marry his brother's widow to provide for her and her children. It was a common practice during times of war and illness. But those quaint ideas of families supporting one anther have long gone by the by. We've gone from one extreme - the application of the Destitute Persons Act whereby an individual could be held legally bound for the support of a cousin - to the other, whereby a biological father needn't be pursued for child support nor named on the birth certificate.

1:12 PM
Mark Wahlberg said...

Lindsay, I don't have a brother and to be honest, my late sisters husband never got my motor running. He couldn't cook and didn't like chopping firewood, thought such things beneath a man. One of us wouldn't have survived the experience. Like I've said in the past "givers got to set limits, because takers never do."
But seriously, dont you think the news report, if it could be called that, was woefully lacking in substance?
I got the feeling the system was being held responsible, but perhaps the finger of blame could have been pointed in other directions.

2:06 PM
Lindsay Mitchell said...

Most news reports of this ilk - a self-reported victim up against 'the system' - suffer from a dearth of detail. To ask for more might infringe on privacy rights and, heaven-forbid, introduce some much-needed nuance into how the reader perceives the situation.

7:06 PM
Mark Wahlberg said...

I suggest going public with ones grievances is a bit like entering hospital where I was told if I was in for more than a day "I should leave my dignity at the door."

8:17 PM

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