it’s not about the dad, I keep explaining this to my family law clients, it’s about the best interests of the child. While she is nursing, arrangements need to focus on her ability to get nourished in what studies show is the most beneficial food for her.
Dad needs to get in the habit which is so difficult for immature boy-children fathers, of putting the child first ahead of his own needs. These dads want to jump up and down, yell about being “disrespected” in their “role as father” (which to them means they get to lay down the law, being “emasculated” which to them means they are angry because they don’t get their way.
That being said, the child has an interest in a relationship with her father, which doesn’t mean dad picks her up and drops her at his mom’s house while he is out running around acting doggish. It means he picks her up, plays with her, talks to her, cooks her something nutricious, reads her some stories, tells her how much he loves her. When she is not with him, he pays mom child support, opens a bank account for her to save what he can for her college, and stays zipped up not making illegitimate half siblings with multiple moms.
Maybe he thinks about growing up and marrying her mother so they can have the benefit of his protection and service since they are his to love.
Your post #101 here is spot on. Well said!