Equal placement custody may not always be best for children.
But equal placement LAWS are most definitely best for children.
Divorce is not the time, divorce court is not the place and divorce lawyers are not the people to do family social work.
Divorce lawyers have no expertise with children or parenting.
Even the best intentioned divorce lawyer is not a child/parenting expert.
Toward the other end of the spectrum, … we know what happens at the other end of the spectrum. Divorcing households expend millions of dollars in legal fees that profit the lawyers without any benefit whatsoever to the children of the divorcing household.
Why should divorce lawyers get to stage a custody fight that only the divorce lawyers win?
There is no evidence that having divorce lawyers stage a custody battle to determine post-divorce parenting does one bit of good for the children of a divorcing household. But it is known to every child expert that having conflict/hostility in a divorce is bad for children. Divorce-instigated or divorce-invited conflict between the parents is contrary to the best interests of the children.
It better serves the children of the divorcing household not to have any incentive for a conflict in the divorce.
It better serves the children not to have assets of the divorcing household converted into billed legal fees by divorce lawyers. (The children of a divorcing household need every resource available to them to remain with them after the divorcing.)
Children should not be the subject of litigation in divorce. Never.
To have a divorce include a “parenting contest” orchestrated by divorce lawyers is nonsensical.
To have divorce lawyer staging conflict in a divorce over children just because “that is what they do” in divorce is nonsensical.
There is absolutely no evidence that children of a divorce benefit in any way from being the subject of litigation.
Divorce lawyers should be put out of the business of child litigation.
Children should not be involved in a divorce at all except to have an equal parenting time/equal placement and joint custody order entered. The focus of the divorce should not be on trying to determine which parent (supposedly) is “better” but on how best to reorganized the divorce household into two separate households that each serve the best interests of the children.
Some children are at risk. That issue has nothing directly to do with divorce. It is not an issue for divorce lawyers to litigate.
There is already a state agency in place to evaluate whether a living situation of children puts the children at risk — child protective services.
A divorcing/divorced parent with a complaint about the other divorcing/divorced parent should go to the child protective services agency.
The child protective services agency has staff trained in child care/neglect/parenting issues. The agency has investigators trained to investigate child well-being issues.
Child protection issues — even in a divorce context — are better presented to the child protective services agency than to a divorce court via divorce lawyers (who have no special experience with children/parenting).
The divorcing wife who complains because the father is unfit because he was late 10 minutes to get his daughters to their Brownie meeting or because the children wore ripped snow pants can present her complaint to the child protective services agency.
Her case can be heard in the agency right after the case where the parents left the children in the car all night while at the local casino.
It is time to take children out of divorce litigation and out of the hands of divorce lawyers.