President of the Single Fathers’ Association Rhondall Feeles is urging parents to engage in peaceful co-parenting for the sake of their children.
His comments came in the wake of the acrimonious dispute between the parents of Prince Francette who perished after a car exploded last week. The child’s father, Justin Francette, was banned by the child’s mother, Maria Granger, from attending the funeral on Wednesday as both parents grieved the loss of the three-year-old son.
In an interview, Feeles said Francette had a legal right to bury his son. However, he said it was understandable that Francette chose to stay away from the funeral, rather than clash with other heartbroken relatives.
He said based on the tragic circumstances surrounding Prince’s death, other separated couples could learn a valuable lesson about the need to have peaceful co-parenting.
“Parents need to find a way to work together, shelving intimacy and forging a parental partnership. Children need both mother and father. When their parents fight, children are hurt. Parents need to find a way to keep the peace. Learn parental rights and practice co-parenting,” Feeles said.
He added that heroic single parenting was long gone.
“The long-time days of single mother heroism are over. When a couple split, they should never use the children as weapons to hurt one another. Both parents will lose and the children will suffer,” Feeles said.
He said it was unfortunate that a family could be torn apart because of tragedy, Feeles said many times fathers are not informed about their rights.
“It is heart rendering to know that he never got a chance to say goodbye. Fathers and mothers should know their rights. Once he was in a public space he could not be barred from attending the funeral,” Feeles said.
He noted that many times confrontation between parents resulted in the deaths of children.
Feeles said the Association had developed workshops for co-parenting.
“The nowadays parents want to form a partnership position,” he said.
He noted that other parents who are facing a similar scenario should learn from the experience of the Francette family and take personal responsibility for their children.