DIVORCE & FATHERHOOD III - a dad's perspective

Straight up, being a divorced dad stinks and is very difficult and often painful. my daughter was yanked out of my everyday life &hers at age 3.  Some background, When Sarah was born, I was right there.   I sat in a hospital nursery rocker and rocked her all night, her first night of life as her mom recovered from a hard delivery.  It was I that took the responsibility of getting up nights with her after she came home.  I loved every minute of those sleepless nights. I took on the role as primary caregiver throughout those first three years.    Despite this, the courts in their biased approach, automatically gave the advantage of custody to her mom. It broke my heart (still not healed) when the court ruled that I could only see my little girl  every other weekend and 2 hours on Thursdays.   So  there you have it, I went from 168 hours a week to 26 hours  with the stroke of a pen and the antiquated prejudice that mothers automatically are the better parent.  I know that in many, if not most cases, that is accurate, but not in mine.  I was/am at the least, an equal parent.. I have made the best of my time with Sarah, emphasising quality over quantity of time.  However this is not easy on her or I. as a result, there were lots of tears from both Sarah and I   every time she had to leave my house.  I pray that in the near future, our courts look at custody on a case by case basis and get rid of the old stereotypes.  Thank you for your time in reading this short series on a very serious subject.