Family Breakdown has been written because it’s a grim fact of modern Britain that almost half of children will suffer the separation of their parents by the time they are 16.
More than 12,000 couples with children now decide to live apart every year, and that means those affected by such family splits – taking into account family and friends of both parents and children – run into the millions.
MPG is campaigning on a national level to improve the way we deal with this major problem. The book is one part of the campaign. We are also working to reform the family court system so that there is more collaboration and a much greater understanding of what children’s needs actually are.
Recent media reports have suggested that MPG’s book is in some way anti-fathers.
Penelope Leach says:
“It is definitely not. It has been written as much for fathers as for mothers and regards them as equally important.”
She adds:
“As I say in the book:
…..fathers are as important as mothers, and many studies now show that children, adolescents and adults who have close relationships with their fathers do better everywhere and forever at school, at work and in their social lives, than those who do not so it is clearly highly desirable that children of all ages should have the best possible relationship with both parents.
“I believe that fathers matter as much to children as mothers. I do not acknowledge any circumstances in which it is right for a mother to air-brush the father out of a child’s life. Indeed, it is the whole purpose of this book to encourage divorced or separated parents to strive for continued mutual parenting.”
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