After divorce, Shared Parenting is Imperative!!!
It started months ago — the positioning, the “talk,” the traveling around the country to small towns and big cities and everywhere in between, speaking at town hall meetings, through cellphone video sound bites or via super-efficient 140-character tweets.
What presidential candidates actually are talking about and what they should be talking about are two very different things. One of the largely overlooked key issues for not only Virginia families but also mothers, fathers and children throughout the nation is improving the well-being of our children when parents divorce or separate.
Considering nearly 20 states within the past year proposed child custody law changes that support shared parenting — rather than sole custody — after divorce, it’s time presidential candidates join the effort to bring family court reform to the forefront.
The urgency of the issue is in the data. As research continues to side with shared parenting, federal statistics continue to reveal the risks faced by children denied the active involvement of both parents.
For instance, federal data show that children raised by single parents account for the great majority of high-school dropouts, illegal drug use, institutionalized juveniles and teen suicides, among many other negative impacts.
In this age of gender role convergence, people — including presidential candidates — are often surprised to learn just how often courts currently favor one parent over the other. In fact, sole custody is awarded to one parent about 83 percent of the time, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, thus creating a confrontational dynamic of single parent vs. “the visitor.”
For more on this story click here. (Source: Suffolk News Herald)
