Since we know NOTHING about what happened that caused this child to be in the custody of his father, and since we know NOTHING about why his mother was absent for this period of time, I will not judge. I make it a point to use facts to make logical conclusions and we have NOTHING to go on here but our own emotional triggers to our own personal life experience, not a good way to ascertain reality as it IS rather than as we shape shift it for our own comfort.
This is reminding me so much of poor Desiree, mother of missing Kyron Horman, who had strangers spewing the most venomous trash about her "motherhood" because Kyron's father had custody and she didn't see him for an extended time period in his early years. When the news was finally released that she had extremely serious kidney failure and actually had to leave the country to get treatment that saved her life, many felt pretty bad about having added insult and wrongful judgement to what was already a heartbreaking experience for her. I just won't trash young Irwin's mother without having ANYTHING on which to base that judgement. If we do not LEARN from history, we are doomed to REPEAT it.