As a mother and grandmother, I ask our governor to waste no time in standing up for Missouri children whose parents are divorced or separated by signing the shared parenting bill that overwhelmingly passed the Missouri legislature and arrived on his desk May 25.
I feel so strongly about this legislation, House Bill 1550, because I’ve felt the pain Missouri’s broken family court system inflicts on families. Children are hurting. Parents are hurting. Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents — everyone’s hurting.
This unfortunate reality occurs because our courts continue rubber-stamping the outdated primary residential custody parenting model after divorce or separation, despite an overwhelming amount of research showing children need and want equal access to both parents.