Fathers beware - don't cuddle or play with your kids in public!

[Paul in NZ]

I hope you are right Paul but after having just read the original post and that it has already been thrown out by 2 JPs one starts to think Peter Ellis.

Oh - don't get me wrong thats what I was thinking and I knew some of the people involved in that case on both sides. Armed with that knowledge I can see how this shit happens which is almost my point. The cop may have met this person and they may have been sufficiently outside her comfort zone so she thinks 'jeeze, youre a fuckin wierdo mate, you must be guilty of something...". Not a good look but understandable when that officer has probably had to deal with stuff that would leave you or I speachless with rage...

[oneofsix]

Oh - don't get me wrong thats what I was thinking and I knew some of the people involved in that case on both sides. Armed with that knowledge I can see how this shit happens which is almost my point. The cop may have met this person and they may have been sufficiently outside her comfort zone so she thinks 'jeeze, youre a fuckin wierdo mate, you must be guilty of something...". Not a good look but understandable when that officer has probably had to deal with stuff that would leave you or I speachless with rage...

Hence why we have checks and balances like the JP's, courts etc. Worrying that they are still pursuing when the JP's have said no twice. Sounding more like a witch hunt, afraid to back off or bee in bonnet, perhaps a friend of a senior office that wont face the truth ;-)
If it proves to be a witch hunt or something similar we, the NZ public, need to be sure that someone will get their arse kicked in a meaningful way for making the family suffer. They they prove to be right then the JP's need firing.

[Asher]

I think this is a really interesting debate. I've been at parks and have told people to leave as I was certain that the kids they were taking photos of and hugging etc weren't their relation. It has always been older males who are probably just a bit lonely but I still consider it not to be appropriate.

[James Deuce]

I think this is a really interesting debate. I've been at parks and have told people to leave as I was certain that the kids they were taking photos of and hugging etc weren't their relation. It has always been older males who are probably just a bit lonely but I still consider it not to be appropriate.

Yeah, I've had that done to me, what with being an older male and having kids who are younger than people would expect. It takes every ounce of self-control I have not to smash my camera down the throat of the nosy busybody telling me to stop photographing my own kids.

On the couple of occasions I've been asked to prove that they're my kids (one just this weekend gone - I offered to call the local cop who I know and knows that these are indeed my kids) I've politely requested their portable DNA and blood typing kit because it isn't yet customary in NZ to carry one's papers with oneself. It was the first opportunity I've had to photograph them with the new dog.

I fucking give up. I guess being a Dad in NZ means going to work before they get out of bed in the morning, coming home after they've gone to bed and staying away all weekend. Especially if you don't fit some nosy arsehole's preconceptions of what type of man is appropriate as a the father of the little group of kids they've just seen him with.