Jason's story
"I was nineteen when we first started going out. We soon moved in together and, after a while, had two children. We never really thought to get married.
After fourteen years, it all fell apart. It was such shock when we finally split up - neither of us handled it well. My ex started using the kids to get her own way. She wanted more child support, but I couldn't afford it, so she stopped me seeing them. She gave in after I got the solicitors involved and I began to see them on a regular basis. Even so, my solicitor warned me that I didn't have parental responsibility for either of them. For a while, it didn't seem to matter.
But when my daughter became ill, I wasn't able to consent to her having an operation, my ex had to.
The simplest way for me to get parental responsibility would be to make an agreement with my ex but, since the split, that's not been an option - she's not going to make things easy for me. My only alternative is to go to court but, now we've got contact sorted, I don't really want to rock the boat. I just wish I'd known about parental responsibility when we were still together."
