Divorce today can be very different than it was 30 years ago. For one thing, experts note that there is more of an emphasis on equal rights for fathers and mothers.
Why is this? There are a hundred reasons, but one of the biggest ones, some experts contend, is that parents who are now getting divorced came from families with divorced parents. They didn’t always like how their parents handled it.
For example, the presumption in the courts in past generations was that children would stay with the mother. The father may occasionally have the kids overnight on a weekend, but he’d mostly just drop by and visit or take them out for the day. They lived with mom.
In some cases, could this have led to a weakening of the relationship between the children and their father? It certainly would be a different relationship than they’d have if they spent the same amount of time under the father’s care, living with both parents, in both houses.
Now, experts surmise that fathers who grew up without their own fathers are adamant that they won’t let the same thing happen to their kids. They’re not trying to infringe on the mothers’ territory. They just want to make sure that things are really equal so that the kids can still have both mom and dad, even if those two people aren’t living together.
If you’re heading to court, it’s crucial to know what rights you have. No matter what your own childhood was like, you must know how to defend those rights and protect your relationship with your children.
Source: USA Today, “More dads demand equal custody rights,” Sharon Jayson, accessed Aug. 31, 2017