Many fathers abandoned their families, when the responsibilities of life and parenting become too much for them. Reasons or abandonment include: their own abandonment issues from childhood, problems with the children's mothers, addictions, unable to handle parental responsibilities at the time, not wanting a child and the mother not willing to have an abortion or give the child up for adoption, among other issues that cause men to leave.
In many cases the men were part of what I call Sperm Donor Relationships where they procreate and once the baby is born, move on.
Years later, for some reason, men sometimes find a need to make amends and reconnect if possible, especially if they've worked on their issues.
Holidays and seasons come and go with the speed of light and these men feel a need to reconnect.
If the children are in school, the fathers seek visitation rights, often causing court battles with unwilling mothers to whom they owe thousands of dollars in back child support.
If the children are grown, the fathers seek a friendship with the child, and a way to justify or explain their leaving. One should always listen to both sides of the story, and view reality within the energies and goals of letting go and releasing pain.
In many cases they just wonder how the child turned out and want to reintroduce themselves. Most of these children, as I read them, do not want to emotionally connect, just a casual meeting in which their soul knows what their biological father has done with his life, to help them understand and heal their own issues.
For some the ending is happy, for others it is sad, as fathers are shunned or they discover that the child they walked away from is deceased.
Again one must step outside of the box and view the dramas of paternal abandonment in the bigger picture, another aspect of the game from which one must detach