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Jul 27, 2024, 12:07:07 AM

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Guess what Dad, you're pathological!

A New York judge, Hon. Richard Huttner, former chief judge of the King's County (Brooklyn) Family Court, and a prominent member of the New York State Commission on Child Support, made the following comments in "The Fathers Also Rise," New York Magazine, November, 18, 1985:



"You have never seen a bigger pain in the ass than the father who wants to get involved: he can be repulsive. He wants to meet the kid after school at three o'clock, take the kid out to dinner during the week, have the kid on his own birthday, talk to the kid on the phone every evening, go to every open school night, take the kid away for a whole weekend so they can be alone together. This type of father is pathological."

Let me make sure I understand this right- because a father wants to be involved with his child's school activities, have dinner with him or spend some time with him on his birthday, he's not just a "pain in the ass", he's "pathological"? That's funny, because that sure isn't how The American Heritage Dictionary defines it:


path·o·log·i·cal (pâth´e-lój´ì-kel) also

path·o·log·ic (-ìk) --adj. Abbr. path., pathol.


1. Of or relating to pathology. 2. Relating to or
caused by disease. 3. Of, relating to, or manifesting
behavior that is habitual and compulsive.

--path´o·log´i·cal·ly adv.




Apparently Judge Huttner thinks that there is something basically wrong with fathers who care about their children and want to be a part of the their life.

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