It is not uncommon to see a lot of married men in Ghana having relationships outside marriage, most times leading to ‘illegitimate’ children. These men have numerous and different reasons why they decide to go outside their marriages. Whilst some men may have gone out because the women they married could not bear children, there are others who despite having children with their wives, still go outside the marriage to engage in illicit affairs.
These children, through no fault of theirs grow up facing a lot of challenges. Often times, the men may never marry their mothers thus robbing them the opportunity of growing up in a well functioning family unit.
A friend of mine who was the ‘other child’ recounts how growing up she could only see her father once a week, sometimes not seeing him for up to a month. She didn’t make much of this and thought it was normal until she noticed that all her other friends were actually living with two parents. She does not have a close relationship with her father now that she is all grown up because he missed a great part of her childhood.