No yardstick for child’s best interest

Submitted by Matt on Sun, 2009-09-20 18:38

Article here. Excerpt:

'“What is in the interest of the child?” is the question that must be asked in all situations in which legal decisions have to be made about the welfare of children.

But the answer is indeterminate and indeterminable.

While sounding noble, in practice this concept is nothing more than a blank screen upon which decision makers, mental health professionals, welfare workers, lawyers, religious leaders and politicians are invited to project their own beliefs and values.

A decision or belief in one context about what is in the best interests of a child would differ from person to person, place-to-place, culture to culture and generation to generation.

What was considered to be in the best interest of a child in Victorian times is very different from what is considered in the best interest of a child today.'

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Comments

The best interest is to have shared custody. Period.
-ax

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Submitted by axolotl on Mon, 2009-09-21 02:55

I also believe that shared custody is best, and I believed it long before I was ever in a custody situation. But now that I have kids and have been through a failed relationship, I can say that shared custody would only be a possibility in a low number of cases because the conditions have to be just right.

First the parents would have to live in close proximity to each other, usually even within the same school district. Then the parents' schedules would have to coordinate. Also the other parent would have to want this (sometimes parents don't want to be burdened with child care, that is the situation I have).

Also, when parents are no longer a couple it opens the doors for new families to form. Suddenly mom or dad have a new partner and/or new children. It adds a new dimension, and more time and schedules to juggle.

I know in cases of sports and activities it gets sticky. One parent signs a child up for lessons or a team that has practice on one night and a game on the weekend. The other parent resents the activity occurring on 'their' time and refuses to take the child. (I had this happen when I was teaching a dance class - a child could only come to every other lesson). Or maybe the activity conflicts with a new spouse or new/step child's activity. A parent would not think (or want) to check with his/her ex-spouse's new partner to see if there was a conflicting schedule.

I love the idea of shared custody, and I know of one situation where it worked beautifully and the divorce had little effect on the child. But I just don't see it being a reality that most parents could work out. Sorry.

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Submitted by Kris on Mon, 2009-09-21 13:58