The important thing about summer is that it leaves children FREE from a wholly regulated environment. The mind cannot grow and creativity and self-sufficiency cannot develop if children are forever shunted from one activity to another and constantly monitored. It is also bad for them to be constantly with lots of other children. It is EXTREMELY stressful – they need alone time and time with their personal friends.

All you have to do is ask yourself whether you would have liked to spend the summer in school – whatever creative activities there were – and the answer would probably be no. It certainly would have been for me. I did what I liked in the summer – we lived right next to the sea.

What I’m trying to say here is that this is all about decisions. I worked because I could fit it around all that, and I am really grateful for the natural gift that made it possible. Without that, basically, I would have been in a fix.

Well said, Tabatha. With all the pressure groups that exist, has no one ever thought that unless they press the issue the status quo is comfortable for the government? With all these de facto families in Malta, why is it that nobody has taken this cause up and start a protest.

If a petition is signed it should count in thousands and something will have to be done URGENTLY. The status of the unmarried mother, her children and her contribution is as valuable as that of de jure families.

That will ensure that low life’s like this one cannot get off the hook lightly on the lookout for the next adventure.

Sant was not divorced. His marriage was declared null.

I too had a full time job. I had four children and went back after 17 years when my youngest was seven. But I thank my lucky stars for going back to work. Now I have a pension of my own.

Of course I had to sacrifice my free time to be able to pursue my career, but it pays in the long term.

Another answer that I know in advance is that women who work and think it is perfectly doable and why don’t all other women do it only have one child or at most two, who are neatly spaced out.

Try working newsroom hours as a full-time associate editor with three children under six, as I did for a while, and then we’ll talk.

Justice doesn’t prevail because what went wrong can never be corrected, but at least you have your children and you ARE strong in having decided to put a stop to what wasn’t right.

Justice doesn’t prevail either because rights at this stage come with a large dose of poison, which people like him enjoy stretching out as long as possible to exert a measure of control – as they see it – and the legal system entertains these ruses.

I think your exposure is the best form of justice. This behaviour is just not on: cheating, money-laundering, trading in influence. You’re well rid of this low life. Perhaps your case will set some precedents for the shoddy way “common law” status is treated, and that accords no recognition whatsoever to the status of the unmarried mother. Your children are fortunate to have one parent strong enough to right the course.