When couples who have children separate, the issue of child custody can be dodgy. Many fathers might feel shut out of the process of raising their kids — and not by accident. One poll taken recently of recently separated women in the United Kingdom, in fact, finds that about a third of separated moms want to decide on their kids’ upbringing on their own, with no input from the children’s fathers.
Fathers in the same situation, by contrast, only responded at a 15 percent rate that only one parent should have input. This seems to confirm the idea that many dads — regardless of if they’re in Missouri or in a foreign country — want their fathers’ rights to be maintained after a divorce.
Despite advances and openness in thinking, it can still be a difficult concept that fathers — even those who work outside the home and earn most of a family’s income — can be effective single parents. It’s no longer the default position of many family courts that mothers are always the best option for full or even primary custody; there are many more factors at play.
That’s why it is often important for dads who are going through a divorce to make sure they are doing everything they can to give themselves a fighting chance for custody. An attorney who is a supporter of fathers’ rights can be a powerful advocate when it comes to making a case to a judge that joint custody — or sole custody for a father — is in a child’s best interests.
Source: The Daily Mail, “Mums who cut fathers out after separation: One in three say Dad should not have say in their child’s upbringing,” Steve Doughty, Jan. 7, 2014
