Everyday thousands of innocent children are left with divorced parents, hoping to be a never ending marriage, but in reality things don’t go as planned. The majority of the children aren’t well prepared for this situation. They are young, they don’t have the chance to argue whether to be with their father or mother. The judge chooses for them, by showing which parent is eligible to receive care of the child. Most of the time the mother gets to keep the child because she gave birth to the child or she always was responsible for every action the child did. The father hardly gets the child because the judge always assumes that he will take care of the child, but he won’t be very responsibility like the mother, the fathers will end up broken or he will teach bad influences to the child. Fortunately, not all fathers are failures they don’t give up that easily until they have their child in their own hands, but sometimes it depends of the child if he/she wants to be with their father. Some …show more content…
This shows gratitude towards the child that the mother really does care. Divorces occur very often with a child in their lives, the child will suffer a lot because he/she won’t be able to be complete without the father they will be depressed. “In America, there is one divorce approximately every 36 seconds. That's nearly 2,400 divorces per day, 16,800 divorces per week and 876,000 divorces a year.” (32 Shocking). This shows that 876,000 divorces per year are made and in some divorces they claim to have a child. Almost out of all the divorces the mothers gets to keep their child instead of the father. Some of the fathers such as teens don’t care about their own children so they just leave it to their ex wife or they will just pay for the child custody. It’s an awful situation, nobody would want their kids to grow up without a mother or
According to the Council on Families In America, “for the average American, the probability that a marriage taking place today will end in divorce or permanent separation is calculated to be a staggering 60% and more than half of divorcing couples have children under the age of 18. The odds that a child today will witness the divorce of their parents, is twice as great as a generation ago, with as many as half of all children likely to experience a parental divorce before they leave home.”
In the United States today more than one-half of all marriages end in divorce. The purpose of this paper is to examine the reason why women have typically received custody of the children far more often than the fathers. In order to better understand child custody one must first examine how fathers have often times been left out of the picture, and conversely why mothers have had such hard times raising children on their own. This paper will first examine the perspective of a father who has lost custody of his children.
In child custody cases, the goal of the court is to resolve the disagreements in regards to the “parenting plan” between the parents. As stated, every child, parent, and situation is different. When a child is developing, the needs of the child might change accordingly (Mercer, 2009). I...
Since the late 1970s there has been substantial change in the judicial system regarding child custody hearings (Symons, 2010). The end of the 20th century sparked a public demand for more custodial options including joint physical custody (refers to the day-to-day care of children), joint legal custody (refers to a parents rights and responsibilities regarding major decisions involving children) and a general increase in paternal involvement in children’s lives post-divorce (Symons, 2010; Atwood, 2007), 1982 marked the first year where a father in North America was granted sole custody (Amato, 2001). As recently as 1970, there were custodial cases granting sole custody to mothers stating that mothers make the best parents simply because they are mothers (O’Connell, 2007). Today we see many custodial options that range far beyond the traditional scope of sole custodian mothers and fathers with visitation rights or financial responsibilities (American Psychological Association, 2010). Juby, Marcil-Gratton and LeBourdais (2005) found that in Canada, sole custody awarded to fathers remains stable around 10% while joint physical and legal custody range between 25% and 50%.
With the increase of divorce and the number of children being born out of wedlock, parental alienation continues to grow. With custody laws changing, allowing for equal opportunities for both parents to raise their children, and fathers beginning to fight for their right to be involved, not just every other weekend fathers, custody battles have become increasingly fierce. Another factor contributing to this is the fact that many courts consider who will be more willing to encourage the child to have a heathly and continuing relationship with the other parent.
Divorce is becoming a worldwide phenomenon, significantly affecting children’s well-being. It radically changes their future, causing detrimental effects. According to (Julio Cáceres-Delpiano and Eugenio Giolito, 2008) nearly 50% of marriages end with divorce. 90% of children who lived in the USA in the 1960s stayed with their own biological parents, whereas today it makes up only 40% (Hetherington, E. Mavis, and Margaret Stanley-Hagan, 1999). Such an unfavorable problem has been increasing, because in 1969, the California State Legislature changed the divorce laws, where spouses could leave without providing cause (Child Study Center, 2001).
Children of divorced parents may have a lower sense of psychological well-being than children who grew up with intact families the range of feelings that a child may encounter include: disbelief and denial, sadness, loss, loneliness, depression, anger, anxiety, fear, relief, and hope. Some children may experience long-lasting emotional effects into their adulthood that damage their ability to preserve relationships. The result of parental divorce shapes children emotionally and may impact self-esteem, future relationships, dating and marriage (Armando Loomis and Booth 895+)..
Lamb, M. E., Sternberg, K. J., & Thompson, R. A. (1997). The effects of divorce and custody
Children of divorce have a different experience during the holidays, birthdays, and other family events. The process of parental separation alone can pay a toll on a child’s psychological health. Family events may make things awkward around the parents, but that doesn’t even compare to the things children of divorce will have to deal with, even into their adult lives. Constance Matthienssen, author and mother of three, shares in her article “Harry Potter and Divorce Among the Muggles” how her divorce affected her children (“Harry Potter”). Many parents don’t think about a divorce will affect their young children as they grow older, but divorce affects children even into their adult lives. Children of divorce grow to develop negative relationships with their parents, they tend to have poor self-esteem, and they may even find themselves unable to maintain an intimate relationship in their adulthood. Divorce affects every child differently, but it can cause many social issues into their adult lives.
As a whole, “twenty-eight percent of children living with a divorced parent live in a household with an income below the poverty line” (32 Shocking). This is not only bad for the household, but for the nation’s economy. Since “seventy-five percent of children with divorced parents live with their mother,” (32 Shocking) the study done by American Sociological Review that “on average, women’s standard of living declines by 27 percent while men’s standard of living increases by 10 percent following divorce” (McDermott 515) is a major concern of divorce. This is not helping the children’s well-being following the divorce.
Divorce is a process that many people in America go through. The divorce rate continues to escalate over the years. Divorce is a serious problem, it is a gradual process that ultimately results in families breaking up. There are various factors in which a marriage can fail and end up in divorce. Some skip the step of trying to reconcile things and make it work. In some cases it is easy for a divorce to take place. For instance, in cases where both parties are in agreement and have no children it is easier to handle a divorce. But in the cases where children are present, what happens to the kids? Both parents are at each others throats or one is devastated from the rejection, what role does the child play? It is a hard thing to cope with as an adult imagine as a little one or even a teenager, it affects them in more ways than anyone can imagine. It can affect them both physically and emotionally. The effects of divorce are immense, it permanently weakens the bond or relationship between a child and his parents. Can lead to them reaching out or looking to others for attention, causing poor attitudes, low self esteem, dropping grades, loss of virginity, use of drugs and or weapons, or in some cases mutilation of the body. There are various effects that children have to deal with that maybe extremely hard to cope with. One parent may say one thing yet the other disagrees and makes it impossible for the child to have a stable relationship with both of them. Children need both biological parents at their side to be guardians and counselors in their lives, to be examples of what they need to do to become outstanding citizens in our community.
Children who come from broken homes or who have divorced parents often grow into adults with no family values and in turn, have broken homes of their own. In some cases, these children grow into adults with little values and lack the ability to do whatever it takes to ensure that their children do not suffer the same hurtful experience they did.
The negative rates are just too high to ignore. Everyday problems occur mostly because of this lack of fathers, and a lot of people are getting killed, raped, and dropping out of school. To many people, looking in, this may seem like a small issue but in the eyes of the child it is truly a game changer. This ends up contributing to if the child makes something of their life or is more likely to fall in the negative statistical groups listed earlier. Depression is more than likely. I myself go through this at times so I can honestly say its true for me and I believe 100 % of this. Society should take an interest in children who grow up without a father because who knows if that kid next door or in your community could become trouble for the area that you lay your head at and making it unsafe for you and your family. You can see how this can become a bigger problem for society as a whole if we do not pay attention to others. Just because it is not happening in your house or your family it does not mean it will never affect you. That being said, we as a society are doing a better job of responding to this problem. Programs like Boys and Girls Club, My Brother’s Keeper and Big Brothers Big Sisters look to fill this gap in our society specifically among fatherless boys (Joiner, 2016). From my experience, these programs/people build relationships and care about what is going on in the child’s
Family support is the underlying factor that can help facilitate children to feel some form of relief after going through the traumatic experience of the divorce. Many children report that after a divorce occurs they felt more relaxed, relieved, or even happy all at the same time (Halligan, Chang, & Knox, 2014). That is not the only effect children feel after the divorce is finalized. Research done by Halligan et al., (2014), also found many other positive effects that divorce had children. Effects such as escaping from an abusive parent (if one existed), not experiencing arguing in the home anymore, a greater tolerance for more viewpoints, and one of the most important ones improved relationships with one or both
In the world we live in today, divorce has unfortunately become a normal thing in our lives. Many married couples are getting divorced for many reasons; problems in the marriage, either a spouse having an affair, a loss of feelings, and many other types of complications. Many divorces involve children who are young and due to their age do not understand what is really going on. We all know someone who has dealt with divorce. Children are the ones who are typically affected the most by the divorce and they will have to learn to cope with their parent’s divorce at such a young age, affecting them in positive or negative ways.