ABSENT FATHERS

I am a stepmother to three wonderful kids. Unfortunately, if it were not for my intervention, there would be no birthday cards, no plane trips to visit their father and no support checks.

Yet their father, my loving husband, is a doting father to our 17-month-old son. What makes these men tick? He can’t provide me with logical answers.

I have two beautiful teen-age nieces who adore the biological father who never calls or sees them although he lives in the same county. He and their mother have been in a bitter dispute over support for years.

The result: children with behavioral problems. Support checks alone won’t resolve their feelings of abandonment.

C. CARBONE

Los Angeles