"I'm a Good Mama/Daddy"/Rob Manzanares

Are you a good parent? We don't know whether to laugh or cry at the memory of a story we heard a few years ago. A young man who had fathered three children by three different women had been murdered. This man hadn't been married to any of his "baby mamas" and had been in prison the past five years. Yet, his friends universally called him a good daddy who loved his children, the oldest of whom was seven.

This man was an ill-educated drop out. We may not have expected more from him, but how about those we consider the intelligentsia? Perhaps you've read of a man named Rob Manzanares? He's a professional man with more than one degree. Apparently he calls himself a devout Catholic. What kind of father would he make?

Approximately 11 years ago, Manzanares ended a relationship with a woman over religious differences. Obviously, Rob hadn't bothered to check before entering into a a very personal relationship with her. His girlfriend is sometimes called his "wife," but they were never married. The girlfriend was pregnant and was visiting her sister's family in Utah when she went into labor. Utah is considered a state very friendly to adoption, so the woman gave up the child...ten years ago.

Some time later, Manzarnares began trying to get custody of the child, no matter that the child now had two loving and legal parents. He said he would be a great father. Would he? Guess what...he now had another girlfriend, and for all Rob's intelligence and degrees, this woman to whom he wasn't married (and still isn't) also became pregnant. That little fact didn't stop Rob from trying to legally kidnap the first child.

Flash forward to today, ten years later, and Rob is still trying to wrench the Utah child from her parents. Wonderful guy, isn't he? No, he's on the same level of a local man who did almost exactly the same thing a few years ago. Thank God the courts ended the Killen man's quest for a child he didn't need and probably didn't really want.

Unfortunately, Utah courts have let Rob Manazanares' case play out over a decade. A Facebook page that wants to bring the Utah child "home" is run by a woman who states she has four illegitimate children, but is a "good mama." We have no idea what kind of mama she is, but she obviously has poor taste in men and no conception of how to prevent another meaning of that word. 

So as Mother's Day approaches, please remember: A child is neither a doll to be had on whim nor a dog's pull toy. Parenthood shouldn't be about you; it should be about the child whom God intended to have two loving parents.