We had a child, but we couldn’t marry. I didn’t shirk my responsibility. From day one, I’ve been involved. She lived with her mom, so I visited weekly to check on the child and gave them their weekly money. She didn’t like me. She hated me for the fact that we couldn’t marry, and it was my fault that we didn’t. I could understand her sentiments, so that didn’t stop me from taking care of the child.

One evening, I went to see them, and her mother told me she would appreciate it if I didn’t visit their house again because there was a new man in her daughter’s life, and she didn’t want any confusion.

That day, she didn’t allow me to enter the house, and my baby mama also didn’t come out to see me. Her mother collected the money and left. After that evening, whatever I had to send, I had to send through delivery and send money through MoMo.

A few months ago, my baby mama got married. We didn’t discuss how we were going to take care of the child now that she was getting married, but one evening she called to ask me to pay rent for the child. I was like, “Rent for a five-year-old? Is he going to live alone?”

She didn’t ask me to contribute to rent. She said I should pay rent for the boy. When I inquired, she told me the child was living under the roof of her husband, a man who didn’t birth him, so she wouldn’t watch as the man paid rent.

I asked, “Pay rent for the same place you are living?” She answered, “Don’t make it sound like I’m being demanding. This is what you should have paid long ago, but you didn’t. Now I want it paid, or I will take the issue to court.” I said, “That’s fine. Take it to court. I want to hear what the judge will say about paying rent for a five-year-old.”

What Nobody Tells You About Divorce

I don’t know if it’s her new husband who is asking for the rent, or it’s something she wants to do to make her husband happy, or if the husband is in financial problems and wants me to pay their rent for them. But I want to ask: should a child pay rent for living with his own mother?

—Kojo 

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