http://www.sj-r.com/opinions/x931198271/In-My-View-Dad-deserves-better-deal-in-Illinois-law
In My View: Dad deserves better deal in Illinois law
By Staff Report
THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER
Jun 19, 2009
Father's Day focuses our attention on the importance of the role of fathers in children's lives. As perennial as the traditional Father's Day gifts, pronouncements on the virtues of fatherhood by elected officials such as Barack Obama are offered to reinforce its value. When tied to proposed legislation, these statements have often included a suggestion that many fathers need to act more responsibly.
Likewise, the current presumptions of Illinois family courts that ensure divorced fathers' access to their children influence our perceptions of the value of father engagement. Their minimum standards for the parenting roles of separated fathers underwrites the value by which all fathers, married and separated, are measured.
The de-facto minimum parenting schedule used by Illinois courts is every other weekend with a weekly non-overnight visit. This is what most fathers have to contend with. This minimal number of overnights with their children is, according to at least one national child development specialist, a child-unfriendly schedule befitting of only disinterested fathers.
Illinois judges, family court protocols and many legislators have continued to acquiesce over the past decades to this inadequate standard that can be a barrier to fathers acting more responsibly.
Our courts presumed parenting schedule prevails regardless of the father's close geographic proximity and track record of responsible fathering. It is a cookie-cutter presumption that states, in effect, fathers need not put their children to bed, help them with their homework, nor help get them ready for school the very activities associated with being a responsible father.
The Children's Rights Council (CRC) of Illinois provided new minimum guidelines to reform judicial protocols at the Illinois Family Law Study Committee in Waukegan on Jan. 26 of this year. The directors of the CRC of Illinois also listened to the testimony of child development and parenting experts, including prominent psychologists Dr. Alan Ravitz of New York University and Dr. William Pins of at Northwestern University, at the committee's hearing in downtown Chicago.
The expert testimonies provided to the Illinois Family Law Study Committee offer Illinois' judges, attorneys and legislators the academic research and examples needed for serious reform. They need only the will power to create new child-friendly parenting time standards, to demand mandatory parenting agreements, and to adopt other reforms that have met with success in other states.
Along with reforms to court protocols, respected clinicians at the Family Institute at Northwestern University have developed alternative processes that would help redirect vengeful, sociopath and uncooperative parents away from corrosive litigation which is ill-suited to family dissolution, and toward constructive co-parenting solutions. Rather than children's future lives with their parents being steered by overworked legal professionals who often lack the special training to deal with ... these disputes (Firestone and Weinstein), processes such as Integrative Family Therapy could provide a system of intermediate-term counseling blended with mediation to help parents put the kids first.
The benefits of updating Illinois family court protocols are many. They include decreased transfers of children between separated parents, greater father involvement in their children's schooling, fewer animosity-generating court battles, greater communication and incentives for parents to cooperate with each other, more father engagement, fewer Disneyland dads, improved post-divorce adjustment, fewer outcomes that scar children, less elevating of one parent into a monopolizing role and clearer signals to all parents that children in Illinois need a meaningful relationship with both parents.
Illinois is poised to place fatherhood onto a more solid footing. Adoption into law of recommendations from the Illinois Family Law Study Committee would send a positive signal that promotes fatherhood as a value. But will our legislators go far enough in adopting significant improvements to current Illinois family law? Do they have the political fortitude to revise our statutes so that Illinois family courts become significantly more child-friendly?
All of these reforms and alternatives to judicial processes could be put into law. But like all changes to the status quo, there will be resistance. Concerned citizens will need to advocate that legislators should provide Illinois children of separated parents the opportunity for the responsible fathers they deserve and set a positive example for all families.
Mike Doherty is chairman of the Children's Rights Council of Illinois (www.equalparentingillinois.org). He can be reached at
kidsneedbothparents@yahoo.com.
www.myspace.com/familyrights
http://www.youtube.com/user/joemaflage
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