Daniel Pelka

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23544717

A lot has been said here on AB about this case, but there is one aspect that is puzzling me. Mariusz Krezolek is being described in the media as Daniel's step-father. But his real father is still alive and Krezolek is not married to Daniels' mother, so I am not sure how he can be described as the poor child's step-father ? Isn't he just the man that lives Daniels mother ?

[emmie]

common law step father perhaps.

[rockyracoon]

I suppose it's easy saying stepfather than live-in lover of mother.

[rockyracoon]

Doh, easier.

[emmie]

BBC report says partner...

[mikey4444]

Never understood "common law" either !

[Sharingan]

I tend to refer to my Dad as my Dad, my Mum's second husband as my step Dad and her surrent boyfriend who lives with us as ' my mum's boyfriend' but I have been heard to refer to him as ' my step father'. Likewise none of my step brothers or sister ever bothered with the word 'step' it's just ' That's my mum, that's my sister' etc.

[ummmm]

I'm not married and my kids refer to my OH as their dad (to other people)

[FredPuli43]

He is in loco parentis, the man who is not the natural father but who is in the position, with its duties of care, of any parent who is with the child. The natural father was someone else, so we could not call this man the parent, only the step-parent.

Unfortunately it is the cohabitee, the step parent, who is always the most likely to kill or act cruelly to the child. There must be some primitive instinct which says that the only child in the house has to be his; like male bears killing cubs fathered by another. And there is not, perhaps, the natural bond that a natural father has.