Shared Parenting Time – An Emerging Trend?
A generation or two ago, mothers and wives primarily cared for and nurtured children. Husbands and fathers were the primary bread winners. My how times have changed.
In the 21st century Mike Brady could well be cast as a stay-at-home dad while June Cleaver might be a corporate executive with the time to coach her child’s Little League team.
Given the blurring of stereotypical roles in the parenting process, practitioners of family law have increasingly seen litigants and judges make use of shared parenting time in custody cases or divorce cases involving minor children.
Shared parenting time is an arrangement whereby both parents participate and share equally in the child-rearing process. Shared parenting time, also known as 50-50 parenting time, is one of the biggest changes to family law in the past 20 years.
Judges in Jefferson County and Oldham County in Kentucky have become increasingly likely to employ shared parenting time, or 50-50 arrangements. Shared parenting can be of great benefit to children, especially in situations where parents can communicate with the other in a healthy manner and truly take on an equal role in the parenting process.
Despite the emerging trend of shared parenting time arrangements, the Family Court Rules of Procedure and Practice, as adopted by the Kentucky Supreme Court, continue to suggest a default arrangement whereby children should reside primarily with one parent and exercise parenting time with the non-custodial parent in an every-other weekend-type scenario. These model guidelines, which are gender neutral and not mandatory, still represent the thinking of some Family Court judges in Kentucky and may work for families.
Are you seeking a shared parenting time arrangement for your children? Are you seeking to convince the court that a more-traditional every-other weekend arrangement is in your children’s best interest? Are you convinced the other parent only wants a shared parenting arrangement so as to achieve a reduced child support obligation?
To discuss your concerns or questions about any parenting time issue call Jason Dattilo today.
