On Monday, February 17, Furnishing Fatherhood group founder, Lynda Steele, put out the call to dads throughout Oklahoma to get in touch. In a Facebook Live video, Steele shared the group’s mission – to help frustrated dads access the resources they need to be better parents. Non-custodial parents, and dads in general, frequently struggle to find support.
“If this parent, this dad, has at least every other weekend with their child, why don’t they qualify for anything?” Asked Steele in the video. “We started listening to what these dads had to say. We wanted to give back as a resource to strengthen men and fatherhood in our community.”
Mothers, even those without custody, often have open access to free, low-cost or subsidized housing, utilities, food, medical care and other services. In some communities, the same is true for furniture, children’s items, clothing, electronics and even vehicles. Repeatedly, Furnishing Fathers has found the same isn’t true for dads, especially those who only have their kids on the weekends.
If you can’t drive to pick up your child, if the lights or water aren’t on, if they don’t have a bed to sleep on … these situations all impede parenting time. As a society, we complain about men who aren’t involved but don’t always give dads the practical help they need when they need it the most. Steele has run into dads who literally did not have a change of clothes. How is that man supposed to find a job let alone provide an enriching environment for his child?
What started as a simple online request to gather donations for dads in Oklahoma City has become a robust fathers’ help organization with locations in OKC, Tulsa and Lawton, OK. A branch in Pauls Valley should be opening soon.
Not only have dads received help rebuilding their homes after divorce or help to replace items they need to make visitation possible, like car seats or beds, the group has expanded to helping non-custodial parents find help with legal issues. Recently, an Oklahoma dad met with representatives of Furnishing Fatherhood to get help for his children. The courts weren’t listening to him. He was being shut out by judges that were ignoring hospital records that proved abuse.
“What else can we do to make sure the voices of our children are being heard through the voices of their fathers?” Asked Steele. With help, she connected the dad to pro bono children’s attorneys that will represent the man’s children in court free-of-charge.
That’s what dads can get by taking the time to speak with the organization. Real help. Real resources. If you’re located in Oklahoma, get in touch with Furnishing Fathers to share your stories, to request assistance or to volunteer or donate.
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Hello ☺️
Please help?
Simple question:
1) QDRO gave my ex wife 1/3 of my monthly pension.
2) I just retired and am getting my 2/3.
3) My Ex is still gainfully employed, and has no intention on retiring in near future.
Question?
Can my ex legally receive monthly pension payments when she is in fact, NOT RETIRED?
Shouldnt I be receiving 100% of my monthly retirement benefits UNTIL my ex legally retires and she may then collect 1/3 of my pension??
Please help…!!
Hello Brian, we are not able to answer legal questions. However, we can say that generally whatever an ex receives from their former spouse’s pension has nothing to do with whether they retire, it is just their share of the pension that their former spouse earned during the marriage.
This woman and her family helped me so much. I spoke up about my situation and things got 75% better! Working up the nerve for the next step. But if your stuck in a situation you don’t like, reach out to Lynda Steele.
my son lives in another state and has every other weekend ect visitation. The baby momma got married a little over a year ago and her mother told me that she wanted her now husband to adopt my grand baby and she is trying to get my son on not having any contact with my grand baby and so forth so he can adopt her and take my sons rights away. The grand is 8 years old and she and my son adore each other. ever since the baby was born she has used the baby as a tool to control and get her way not only with my son and myself but also her own mother.
what i mean by that is she will not allow any kind of communication and cuts off seeing her and everything any time she dont get her way. This could be a few days or even months of not even noing if she is okay. We have 8 years of documentation of this and so much more.
about 2 plus years ago she finally took him to court in arkansas were he lives and got ordered to pay support. He lost the job he had and informed the support office that he need to make modification and was repeatedly told that he could not for 36 months. So he is only making half of what he was making the time of the support order and could not make changes he was told and now he is behind some thousands of dollars like 3 or 4 i think.
after the support order was done she finally agrees to sit down in oklahoma and do a agreement to visitation and ect. In the last 9 months she has not allowed my son any communication and visits with his daughter and has him blocked on any social media accounts and her phone as well.
my son loves his daughter and wants to see her and talk to her and be the dad that she needs him to be and the father that her mom dos not want him to be but has not got the resources to get this child support and visitation took care of and he cant get any legal help from legal aid because he dont reside in oklahoma.
she has just recently gotten the support moved to oklahoma so now the support and visitation is in the oklahoma system. Would you be able to help us and refer us to a attorney who would help us get equal rights for my son as well as help him get the child support took care of.
she is a very good mother but a awful mother at the same time. she needs put in her place and the fathers need someone to stand for them and help get equal rights across the board for the kids involved