Parenting Apart: Difference between revisions
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<blockquote><blockquote><tt>(c) that decisions among guardians should be made separately or together.</tt></blockquote></blockquote> | <blockquote><blockquote><tt>(c) that decisions among guardians should be made separately or together.</tt></blockquote></blockquote> | ||
Children need their parents to continue to contribute to their care and upbringing after separation. Further, children have the right to expect their parents and caregivers to work together, whenever possible, to ensure | Children need their parents to continue to contribute to their care and upbringing after separation. Further, children have the right to expect their parents and caregivers to work together, whenever possible, to ensure that their needs are met. | ||
While many families work well with a week on/week off schedule or other shared parenting arrangements, the Family Law Act rejects the notion that parents should have the right to have or expect an equal, or near-equal, amount of time with their children before or after separation. | |||
Not all parents can separate in a civil manner, and not all parents share an equal interest in | Not all parents can separate in a civil manner, and not all parents share an equal interest or ability to in participate in the lives and parenting of their children. Some parents may be quite content to walk away and start a new life; others are painfully torn by the conflict between their former partner and their role as a parent. However, in the absence of some serious problem (such as abuse, alcoholism, or pedophilia) that renders a parent unfit to play a meaningful role in his or her child's life, the practical reality of parenting after separation is this: it is almost always in a child's best interests to grow up with two parents, with as strong a bond with both parents as possible, and to spend as much time with both parents as possible. | ||
===Parenting tips=== | ===Parenting tips=== | ||
Divorce doesn't mess kids | Divorce or separation doesn't mess kids up — conflict does. Conflict in intact families and separated families is bad children. | ||
The [http://www.ementalhealth.ca/index.php?m=record&ID=9687 Ottawa Centre for Mediation], formerly the Ottawa Centre for Family and Community Mediation, offers the following parenting dos and don'ts. | |||
'''Things to think about:''' | '''Things to think about:''' |