Father’s Rights in Child Custody Battles

Why do the courts seem to always favor the mother in a divorce when considering child custody? Is it that this is a throwback view from the days when the mother was a stay-at-home mother and therefore had nothing to do but watch and nurture the children? Will the court system ever join the twenty-first century in regards to child custody?

The rights of fathers has increased and changed for the better over time, but there is still a long way to go before there is real parity between mother’s and father’s rights. Women still tend to win in the custody battleground. Of course, the winners should be the children. Not everyone will be happy in these situations nor will they feel they have been treated fairly as to visitation, custody, or support payments.

Father’s rights in custody fights were practically non-existent in the past. However, child psychologists and social workers finally began speaking up. They stated that children of divorce needed their father’s guidance, influence, and presence to provide some semblance of stability in the children’s lives other than just shoveling out money to provide for expenses.

Today, custody laws give fathers some say in their children’s lives after the divorce. They may not have primary custodial rights (where the children live with the father), but the courts are conceding "joint custody" now. This means that the father has some input on major decisions that may effect the rearing of the children. It means that the mother shouldn’t find the most expensive private school for the children without consulting the father, who is expected to pay for the expenses.

A father should have equal rights to be considered the primary custodial parent just as much as the mother. Of course, we don’t hear about this much as judges tend to believe that all children are better off with the mother. However, it should come down to who will be the better parent rather than strictly gender, especially in this age of non-traditional living conditions.

As so often happens, if a father is not awarded primary custody, he will be given a more generous visitation schedule than has been granted in past years. The is due to the unceasing efforts of father’s rights organizations and in part to studies that have proven that a lack of a father’s relationship with his children has produced more juvenile problems, drug use and clinical depression.