It is easy to post old memories and public declarations of love. It is much harder to do the work required to actually show up for a child. This is about the painful difference between performative love and real parental effort.
Mark says his boys are “always on my mind,” but in the months since the court gave him a simple checklist to start seeing them again, he’s done absolutely nothing. Not the DV assessment, not the mental health evaluation, not the care plan. And in the one place he’s supposed to communicate about his kids — Our Family Wizard — he hasn’t even asked once how they’re doing. The only place he shows up is Facebook, where “pride and joy” requires nothing more than a Wi-Fi signal.