April 29, 2019 by Robert Franklin, Member, National Board of Directors, National Parents Organization
At the urging of NPO’s Matt Hale, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin established April 26th as Shared Parenting Day. He issued a proclamation saying so, but went a step further saying this:
“In recognition of the passage of HB 528 into law last year, I am designating April 26, 2019, as Shared Parenting Day in Kentucky. Kentucky’s children are the Commonwealth’s most important asset, and shared parenting benefits our children by providing access to both parents following a divorce or separation, while also factoring in clearly defined exceptions.”
Indeed. Children are not only our most important asset, but they’re our future. Every child is the future of our society, our culture, our body politic. Their well-being is the very core of what we’ve built. The separation of children from their parents is a wrong that has no justification and certainly not in their “best interests.”
So shared parenting is a must for every state and country with laws on divorce and child custody, i.e. every single one.
Shared Parenting Day in Kentucky was the brain child of NPO’s Matt Hale and he’s proclaimed yellow as its commemorative color. That’s yellow as in “tie a yellow ribbon” that recalls families reuniting. “NPO Kentucky Vice-Chair Jason Griffith said that we needed a commemorative color and I immediately chose yellow for the sunny and Glorious Park that shared parenting is. Yellow ribbons for family reunification goes perfectly with it” , Matt stated.
And it turns out that other states may be following Kentucky’s lead. NPO has already received calls from folks in New Jersey who inform us that they’ll soon be dunning their lawmakers for a similar commemoration there. Hale, creator of Shared Parenting Day, started this process by personally asking Governor Bevin and filling out the official request both last September. “Activists in every state should push to proclaim April 26th as Shared Parenting Day. April 26th memorializes the first state passing a permanent order shared parenting presumption and it also follows one day after National Parental Alienation Day. It’s the hope of a new day after a terrible night,” Hale said.
Thanks to NPO, Matt Hale and the Legislature and Governor of Kentucky, the Shared Parenting ball is rolling. Let’s make it so every day is Shared Parenting Day.
Matt Hale, creator of Shared Parenting Day, is the first to wear yellow on the first Shared Parenting Day