With National Single Parent Day on Monday, March 21, National Parents Organization urges citizens and legislators nationwide to recognize the day by supporting shared parenting legislation in numerous states.
“Right now, most children of divorce have just one single parent, plus one ‘visitor.’ With shared parenting, they get not just one, but two single parents – two for the price of one,” said Dr. Ned Holstein, MD, MS, Founder and Board Chair of National Parents Organization.
The founder and board chairman of the National Parents Organization, Ned Holstein supports Scott signing the bill to become a law. He said that it will improve children’s grades, decrease teen pregnancy as well as their use of alcohol and drugs.
“I don’t understand why he would not sign it,” he said. “What’s not to like?”
Based on the research done by the US Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Justice and the Census Bureau, 90 percent of runaway and homeless youth and 71 percent of high school drop-outs were children raised by a single parent.
“What used to be taught decades ago was that kids needed one home after divorce,” Holstein said. “That sounds sort of nice. But it’s a slogan, and it wasn’t based on research.”
It’s been about 40 years since the majority of moms stayed home, and married dads in the 21st century spend twice as much time caring for their children as they did back then.
Yet when parents divorce or separate, custody arrangements are more likely to reflect life as it was in 1975, with the mother as the primary caretaker and the father working to help support a child he seldom sees.
As fathers become more vocal about what they see as inequities in custody cases — and as more research shows how important it is for fathers to be present in their children’s lives — states are considering changing their custody laws.
The Florida Legislature passed a bill March 8 that would make shared parenting — an arrangement in which children spend equal time with each parent after divorce — the norm in Florida, rather than sole custody.
Following passage by the Senate and House of Representatives, the bill now awaits Gov. Rick Scott’s signature.
Ned Holstein, founder and board chairman of the National Parents Organization, said he supports Scott signing the bill into law.
Shared parenting improves children’s grades, decreases their use of drugs and alcohol and reduces rates of teen pregnancy, he said.
“I don’t understand why he would not sign it,” he said. “What’s not to like?”
A bill that would set a formula for the duration and amount of alimony and end permanent alimony was passed by the Florida Legislature and now awaits Gov. Rick Scott’s signature.
“Whether it’s trouble with the law, delinquency, dropping out of school, those problems are not getting better, they’re getting worse,” said Dr. Ned Holstein of the National Parents Organization. “There’s now a mountain of evidence showing that children do better after the parents separate or divorce if they have both parents involved.”
Big changes to family law in Florida are just one signature away.
A bill that would change alimony for divorcing couples is headed to Governor Rick Scott’s desk after passing through the Senate last week and the House on Tuesday.
“Whether it’s trouble with the law, delinquency, dropping out of school, those problems are not getting better, they’re getting worse,” said Dr. Ned Holstein of the National Parents Organization. “There’s now a mountain of evidence showing that children do better after the parents separate or divorce if they have both parents involved.”
“Thank you, Maryland lawmakers, for standing up for what children most want and need. I urge all state legislators to waste no time in moving this historic proposal forward,” said Dr. Ned Holstein, MD, Founder and Board Chair of National Parents Organization. “Millions of American children are suffering from the outmoded practices of the family courts of awarding custody to just one parent, with only a few days per month of parenting time with the other parent. This custody model is not in the best interest of most children. It causes heartache for children, who ardently desire the love and guidance of both parents. And such children do more poorly in school, have higher rates of substance abuse, drop out more frequently, and have higher rates of delinquency, gang activity and trouble with the law.”
Sole custody of children became the court’s model when divorce became frequent in the 60s and 70s. In recent years, however, co-parenting has made headway as an alternative to the current model.