Fair treatment for a parent?

[Si_Crewe]

Thought I'd post this here in the hope that the mod's might be better able to remove baseless accusations of sexism.

Was just wondering what people think about this.

So, I met up with an old mate at the weekend.
he was supposed to be getting a new (new to him, at least) motorbike but he was still riding the same bike he's had for years and he told me why he hasn't been able to afford the new bike.

he split up with his missus about 5 years ago and he has a young daughter who he pays around £100 a week to support.
His ex was a wannabe-model and she now seems to be living vicariously through her daughter, signing her up as a child-model, setting up a website and entering her in various "pageants" etc.

I think I mentioned, a while back, that I thought it was kind of creepy the way the "gallery" page of the kid's website has had millions of hits while the other pages haven't had anything like the same amount of traffic and, ultimately, they've only ever had about half-a-dozen enquiries about modelling work via the website in 5 years.

So, it turns out that my mate, the kid's father, wasn't happy about the website either and he asked her to remove some of the dodgier pictures (pictures of the kid in a bikini and dressed up in rather "mature" outfits etc) .
The mother wasn't interested in complying and the father ended up having to get a court-order which allowed him some control over the website.

More recently, and the reason he hasn't got the new motorbike, it seems that the kid was supposed to be spending the summer holidays abroad on some kind of school exchange program.
The scheme was set to cost £2,500 and he stumped up £1,500 toward it.
And then it turned out the kid wasn't going.
Apparently the mother decided to spend the £1,500 on modelling-related stuff for the kid instead.
When the father found out about this he ended up paying the entire £2,500 so she could go on the trip - on top of the £1,500 he'd already paid.

That doesn't seem like the father is getting a fair deal with regard to having an input into the kid's life.

Obviously, I'm just relating one side of the story, as told by the father, and it's not something I plan on getting particularly involved with but I was just wondering what people here think.

[Didge]

He should b able to claim the money back off the mother, if she spent it and it was meant for his daughter.
It was not her money to spend.
He should also look ino further whether the momey she is obtaining off the daughter he is entittled to or whether he should be paying less.
Though I would want my daughters to still have a good life and provided for.
It depends how he feels.
What he needs to maintain is the relationship he has with his daughter and not to allow his ex to destroy that even if he is at ods with some of the things she is doing.
As that could lead to a strained relationship with his daughter.
The two aspects need to remain seperate even though this is hard.

[BigAndy9]

The guy needs to be more careful, more forceful etc.

The money should have been paid to the school / organisation sorting the trip, not to the mother.

As for the website - well, i think we're all a little bit delerious about kiddy fiddlers. As a family, we have tons of videos and photos - have a guess which ones we view over and over?

[Si_Crewe]

As for the website - well, i think we're all a little bit delerious about kiddy fiddlers. As a family, we have tons of videos and photos - have a guess which ones we view over and over?

True enough.

Course, if you had all the photo's on, say, Flickr or Photobucket and you found that it was certain photo's that got vastly more views than the others, would you be comfortable with that?

You're right about the money, of course, but I guess it just wasn't something he saw coming.
The mother can, I suppose, claim that the cash was spent on the kid - even though it wasn't spent in the way that the father intended.

[PinkSmurf]

I really don't like the beauty pageants for little girls. I don't think the clothes and makeup are good for little girls. I agree that if the Dad is going to pay for something like a school trip and later on a car or university he should pay the school or whatever direct instead of giving the cash to the mother. Going back to the pageants it's often the mothers' dreams for their children that seem to be the driving force. I understand children like to dress up but I think little girls are too young for all that makeup etc.

[Stooo]

What bike was he after?

[Si_Crewe]

What bike was he after?

Sorry, only just saw the new(er) replies.

He was hoping to get an Agusta F4.

He's been riding a first-generation Fireblade since it was new but a lot of the bikers I know seem to be going for more "exclusive" bikes these days; Ducatis, Aprilias, KTMs etc.
I like to think that's partly down to me buying my 916.
There's nothing especially good about it (except the noise) but it just seems to be one of those bikes that makes jap' bike owners feel inadequate.