Should mothers automatically get custody rights?

Carol Forsloff - It has been cherished tradition in the courts that when there is a divorce the mother gets the kids.  The father has had to prove the mother's neglect to get them, but this is beginning to change..

Divorce can be difficult, especially when there are children.  The new proposal is meant to make divorces less contentious.

Some states have examined this issue and are now beginning to offer the fathers custody, no longer assuming the mother to be the fittest parent

The statistics of Massachussets were  cited
as a 1993 study of 501 custody decisions in Worcester County that found that mothers were awarded sole physical custody in 83.2% of cases. Dads got sole custody in 8.8% of cases and joint physical custody was
awarded in 8% of cases.

Those may be old numbers, but the Census Bureau 2005 statistics show that nationwide that figure was 83.8%. So in 1993, when the Worcester County study was done, awards of physical custody almost exactly matched the numbers in the entire country.

Where did that premise come from, that mother's were to automatically to have custody in a divorce unless proven to be unfit?  It comes from our history that the mother raises the children and the fathers make the money.

New patterns of child raising and the economics of the family have changed how children are
raised, as both parents are often involved both in caring for the children and working outside the home.

Shared Parenting laws require courts handling divorces to treat the parents equally in court proceedings, as if they're equally capable and competent parents.

The laws, where enacted, assume both parents equal in serving the needs of the children and make exceptions when someone has demonstrated they're unfit to share custody.

 "In making an order or judgment relative to the custody of children, the rights of the parents shall, in the absence of misconduct that is harmful to the child, be held to be equal,"makes the law unambiguous.

Attorneys look at this and say this is long overdue.  It brings fairness into a personal and important part of life and can lower tensions between parents.

In shared custody agreements, fathers do not have to immediately be on the defensive about their own positions in court and ready to find fault with the mother in order to get custody of the children.  Mothers won't get all the responsibilities for the child-rearing either.  It will be seen as a mutual responsibility and shared effort on every level in those areas allowing shared custody agrements.

Many people hope shared custody becomes part of the laws of all the states, under a new wave of thinking about children's rights and parental rights so that both parents can share in the financial, emotional and physical caring for the children..

35 states now have joint custody laws that do not presume the mother to automatically have custody of the children but parents to share in the responsibilities of caring for their children.