Terrie
Monterey,#2Consumer Suggestion
Mon, October 11, 2004
The law should offer help in other ways where a child could even ask for this help. The facts are this man has a problem . The law did not offer him a way to save his marriage and children . The point is even though this man was a terrible husband and father does not mean the laws should be set up as if all fathers are in this group and take the rights of all fathers away. To take your children from you even from a man like the one described above is not right. The law is set that one parent has to be removed from children they saw everyday to now visitation of every other weekend. Then if the other parent decides not to allow the other parent this (which is about 77% this happens) it will cost a lot of money to get a court to change it. The facts are the law does little about the visitation of the children. The law should promote sharing children and have rules set in place that if daily sharing the parties have to agree to live within so many miles of one another, and the child attend one school. The rules should also be set that each parent offer a safe place in which the children are shared. Parents should not be allowed partners that are live ins unless they marry. Rules that sharing cannot take place out of state until the child is of a certain age. A mediator should be assigned to work out arrangements that become a problem and this mediator should do random checks and give the parents an chance to correct any problems the mediator finds them before it is reported to the court. The child should be able to call the mediator. This gives jobs to all those child support workers out there. The well being of the child should be the concern of the court.. If either parent becomes violent or does not cooperate with the sharing or somehow places the children in harm way or the children are harmed in a parents care , then the courts should decide if the sharing should continue. The parent who causes the sharing to end then should be ordered to pay support and be reduced to visitation. This way both parents are given the chance to be a part of the child's life and the parents actions will decide if they lose that right. This arrangement may have even worked with the case mentioned above. The father may have changed in order to be in his children's life, the fact is the father should have been given the opportunity to try. People should not lose rights because of divorce and the fact is both parents have the same rights to their children. In this country rights are taken away when the party has done something to cause this right to be removed. To stop loving a spouse does not stop the love to the children. Love is a right in its own.