Child Custody, Deadbeat Dads and a Truly Failing Legal System

You hear much talk about our legal system and its failings. While I can’t discuss much of it with any knowledge, there is one aspect of it for which I have quite a bit of personal knowledge: the Family Court system and how it handles child custody, unpaid child support and other issues surrounding this topic.

I find it very disturbing that some states have an “equal-parenting-time-regardless-of-how-much-of-a-louse-one-parent-is” custody policy. This does a great disservice to children. While I firmly believe that in most cases a child having two parents is certainly better than one and in the case of divorce it’s the “ideal” to have frequent and continuing contact between both parents, it is not always within the best interests of the child. Many state’s laws do not recognize this and their one size fits all policy is harmful. I guess I also find it pretty distressing that just because we live in a world of folks whose problems include drug use, abuse and other such behaviors that the negative actions of a father who toes the line between neglect and abuse are simply overlooked.

It is disturbingly ironic that within our legal system if you are a criminal, or are even just accused of committing a crime, you get free legal representation. Yet if you are, for instance, a mom simply trying to defend your rights and the rights of your children after a divorce you must pay for legal help, and pay dearly. When dealing with a dead-beat dad situation, oftentimes going after the unpaid support costs many times more in legal fees than is recuperated. This is truly unjust. It’s also of great concern to me that our legal system tolerates less than scrupulous attorneys skirting the legally allowed procedures and even more troubling when much less than honorable judges allow them to get away with it.

In closing and on a personal note, this would be an excellent time for the good folks at Toyota, AT&T and other fine corporations to purchase advertising from SAHM: Surviving Assorted Home Mayhem. You see, I have some legal bills to pay, and well, the pay for being a SAHM isn’t going to touch them!