Sometimes the family figures we look up to most are the ones that let us down the hardest.

This father was never truly present for his young family

Thanks to the help of an resourceful child, the truth about his many infidelities came to light.

One single mother took him to court to repay years of unpaid child support, marking a victory for a family he long neglected.

Read on for the full story!

I helped my mum take my dad to court

When I was 5 years old, my parents separated.

My mum tried explaining to us that it was just going to be my mum, my younger sister and me from now on.

But my younger sister and I came up with the story that he was ‘at work’ whenever our friends asked.

The kids struggle with this, as they remember all the good things about their dad.

My dad was ‘the life’ of the house; always making friends with everyone he met out and about, playing with us and being the apple of our eyes.

Then, they get a glimmer of hope that things could return to normal.

About a month after the separation, my mum announced to us that my dad was coming back; my parents were going to try again.

Of course, being the kids that we were, we were so happy.

I still remember now my brother and I were screaming and shouting as our mother watched with a happy smile.

It did not last.

It seems it’s not the same dad that’s returned to them.

I started to notice things. He wasn’t the dad I remembered.

He would berate my mum for the smallest of things. Things like the way she ate, the food she cooked and the friends we had.

I remember my dad forbidding my brother from going over to my aunt’s house for a sleepover with my cousins because ‘my aunt left the window open at night’.

My dad was controlling and would restrict us all from doing things. He ruled the house with an iron fist.

Their mother kicked him out again, but the damage to the children was already done.

A year of us living like the ‘happy family’ my dad wanted, my mum said that my dad was not coming back.

I didn’t feel a certain way, for I didn’t like the way my family was turning out.

My younger sister- who had previously been the loudest of us- would not talk to anyone.

His actions each impacted the family in different ways.

It had gotten so bad that her teachers often asked me to sit in her reading lessons, as her teachers couldn’t assess her reading level as she wouldn’t trust anyone but me.

My brother, who was the kindest boy I ever knew, was picking fights and getting detentions all the time at school.

And my mother only left the house for school runs.

From then on, we would spend weekends at our dad house and weekdays at home with mum.

I didn’t feel a certain way about things.

The mother tried to hold it together, but sometimes the cracks in her façade would show.

When she thought none of us were awake, my mum would sit at the dining room table where we used to eat and break down and cry.

I wasn’t sure why then, but now I know that it was due to the stress of having to raise three young children, keep a house running on a church secretary’s wage and my dad refused to pay for the house and only gave a fraction of child support.

This financial disparity was very evident, even to the children.

Our financial situation worsened, so my mum instead took up a second job as a childminder.

By this time my brother was in high school and it was just my sister and I still in primary school.

My mum worked hard out to help keep a roof over our heads and give us a normal life with little help from our dad.

The latter was living it up in his bachelor flat and the freedom to do whatever he wanted, his only fatherly duties being to see us on weekends.

Then one day, mom dropped a bombshell and the kids began to put things together.

On one of my mum’s bad days, she even let slip how dad had been cheating on her and I felt sick.

He took me to a woman’s house once when I was about 8 years old and home from school with tonsillitis.

Even forced me to call her ‘aunty’ and gush over how cute I was.

He had sat me in the living room, I still remember watching the ‘sleepover club’ on Nickelodeon whilst my dad and aunty were elsewhere.

His infidelity got their community talking.

To make things worse, aunty was a close friend of one of my mum’s church friends.

My mum’s church friend was figure in the community and she had seen my dad and aunty together and gave my mum the heads up.

Mum was distraught.

People now knew about my dad’s infidelity. Everyone at church offered to pray for her, they meant well, but to a prideful woman like my mum; it was soul-crushing.

Fast forward and dad has a new family now.

Nine years after the divorce, my father was now happily married to his new wife and had given us two new step siblings.

By then, my brother had cut all ties with our dad; my sister was going through her rebellious teen phase and I was constantly anxious mess.

Alongside, our mother was tired of our financial situation at home; she had three teenagers to support.

Someone suggests the single mom get the legal system involved.

It was suggested by my oldest half sister (who luckily did not have to same dad) and her husband (Who was a police officer and had studied law) who convinced my mum to seek legal action.

As a result, she told us that she was going to take our dad to court, but she needed an address for her lawyers to send him a letter.

An address she didn’t have.

Neither my sister or brother knew where he lived, but on each visit to his home, I made sure to keep special attention to the all the road signs, landmarks etc.

Luckily, this resourceful child did.

This was my time to shine.

After a quick google search, I found his home and wasted no time in giving the address to my mum.

A couple of weeks later my younger sister gets a nasty text from my dad saying to ‘never ask him for anything again’ for we had ‘betrayed him’

My brother and I didn’t care much, but my sister was pretty upset.

Then the court day comes.

Months later. My parents go to court.

My mum brought my older half-sister (different dad), her husband and my brother with her.

My father went alone.

They were surprised at their father’s appearance.

He appeared sallow, a shell of the man he was from our childhood and revealed to my brother that he was ill with prostate cancer.

We were sad for him, but that did not change the way that any of us felt. I felt only pity for him.

For my dad is a man of pride. He prided in his health, something his parent did not have.

The court rendered its verdict.

Despite my dad bringing up his sickness and treatment, he was forced to pay the child support he owed my mother.

Over the past ten years, he had accumulated thousands of pounds he had avoided paying my mother by secretly reducing the among of arrears he put into her account monthly.

He had to repay what he owed in monthly settlements until both my sister and I turned 18.

They may have won, but it didn’t take their dad long to go back to his old ways.

It was a small victory for us.

The settlement did nothing to stop his cheating ways.

He cheated on my now ex-step mother after being declared cancer free and I’m glad to say that I happily told her what he was doing after I put my skills to good work again.

The trust and respect he lost after years of deception can never fully be regained.

What did Reddit have to say?

This user empathizes with all the author’s family has been through.

This Redditor found themselves in a similar situation, but they never saw the same justice.

Missed child support payments really add up!

This absent father’s reputation was bankrupt long before the family arrived in court.

He may have paid what he owed, but no amount of cash could cover the cost of broken promises.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.