Coming to Terms with Child Custody Rights

A more sensitive approach is being taken nowadays with regards to child custody rights. Following the proceedings of a divorce, annulment or legal separation between two parents, the courts get to decide what is in the child’s best interest, whether both parents logically agree or not.

It used to be that the term child custody rights meant the right of a parent to decide for a child, or the duty of a parent to take care of a child. Now it is viewed the other way around, with the focus aptly being on the child. Child custody is now regarded as a child’s right to be taken good care of not out of a duty or obligation but out of a natural love from either or both parents and out of a world respect for this young human life deserving only of the best.

The term child visitation has tactfully been revised to parenting schedule. It implies a pattern which is recurrent, alternating, and most important of all, steady and consistent. It appears and feels more comforting and reassuring to the child.

Child custody rights and access have been replaced with the softer, friendlier tones of terms like residence and contact. These changes have taken the attention of parents away from the ownership concept of who has whom more and who stays with whom less.

An equal opportunity arises for either parent to come to terms with the fact that, although the child will have to reside with one parent living in a stable environment, the lines of communication with the other parent remain open and that contact is possible between them anytime. Emphasis is more on quality than quantity.

The practice of family law in terms of child custody rights may not always be harmonious, which is why custody battles and family disputes keep the courts busy as ever. Out of some desire for control or feeling of insecurity, some parents are not as understanding, accepting, and cooperative with the law.

If any child growing up in a broken marriage has to survive, safe and intact from the effects of a dysfunctional home, then a new and better approach towards child-rearing has to evolve and take root among parents today. Negative terms related to child custody rights like alienation, manipulation, and deprivation have to lose their hold on people’s minds and tongues.

In their place, positive terms which reinforce good values should emanate from the heart and integrate into a child’s joint upbringing.

The exercise of child custody rights is not a battle, and neither is it that thin vein of a right. Child custody is a privilege, freely and responsibly given. It is a solemn duty to protect, love, and cherish a life. It is a wish granted to be the caretaker of another being’s existence while that same child is not yet able to go out on his or her own. This kind of love is not exclusive of but rather inclusive of everything that can benefit the child.

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Child Custody Rights

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Coming to Terms with Child Custody Rights

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