18/09/2026
Supporting your children is not a favour you do for their mother. It is your responsibility as their father.
Paying school fees, providing food, clothing, healthcare and making sure your children are okay is parenting, not an investment towards getting your ex back.
A woman saying, “I no longer want this relationship,” should not become a reason for you to withdraw from your children.
And please, let’s talk about something uncomfortable.
Some men use their financial responsibility towards their children as leverage over the mother. They threaten to stop paying school fees, withdraw support or make life difficult unless the woman agrees to come back, sleep with them or give them access to her.
That is not love. That is manipulation.
Your children should never become the price a woman has to pay for saying no to you.
Even if she eventually meets another man, your responsibility towards your children does not disappear. Her new relationship does not cancel your fatherhood.
And if you genuinely believe you are being denied access to your children, handle it through mature communication and the proper legal or family channels. Don’t punish the children because you are angry with their mother.
This is also why women need financial independence.
Ladies, please learn to make your own money. Build a career, learn a skill, start something, save and become capable of taking care of yourself and your children.
Because when a woman depends completely on a man for survival, it becomes easier for someone to use money as a weapon against her.
When you have your own money as a woman, no man should be able to force you to sleep with him just so he can pay for child support.
When you have your own money as a woman, you get to choose who you give access to your body to.
You choose out of love, character, compatibility, and how the man makes you feel, not out of survival.
That is why financial independence matters.
It gives a woman the freedom to say NO without wondering how she will feed her children tomorrow.
It gives her the ability to leave a relationship that is no longer healthy without feeling trapped by financial dependence.
And it reminds her that her body is not payment for school fees, rent, food or childcare.
A man can be a responsible father and still accept that his relationship with the mother of his children has ended.
And a woman can be financially independent while still allowing the father of her children to play his proper role in their lives.
These things can coexist.
Men, moving on is part of adulthood.
If she says she is no longer interested, accept it. Heal. Move forward. Find your peace.
But don’t turn your children into weapons because the woman you wanted has chosen a different path.
Be a father because they are your children, not because you are trying to win their mother back.
And women, sit up too. Build yourself to a point where survival never becomes the reason you stay where your heart no longer wants to be.
Until our next real talk… 🤍
Chizzy’s Circle
Chizoba Esther Nwanne
Real talk. Real growth. Real you.