February 25, 2016
By Robert Franklin, Esq, Member, National Board of Directors, National Parents Organization
The National Parents Organization continues to press the importance of equal parenting in the news media. Last week’s newsletter retailed the almost 40 different news hits NPO has garnered in just the first two weeks of this month. And it’s still happening.
NPO star Don Hubin appeared late last week on CBS in Iowa here as part of the Family 411 series that appears on television news outlets across the nation. Cincinnati’s CBS affiliate will also air the piece this week.
Check out the Family 411 video. If anything demonstrates how far we’ve come in the national conversation on how children are parented post-divorce, it does. When we hear from a news anchor on a major state TV news outlet that “overwhelming research” shows that “kids thrive on equal time with both Mom and Dad,” we know we’ve come a long way.
Family 411 features an unmarried father struggling to get time with his twin boys. He says outright that his ex is who decides how much time he gets with the kids. Meanwhile, the video shows the obviously capable and loving father caring for his sons.
By contrast, Family 411 shows a mother who’s in an equal parenting arrangement with her ex-husband. Viewers are told she and her ex are “committed to parenting their son equally.” She adds that the boy is lucky to have “such a great relationship with his dad.” True enough, but I’d add that he’s lucky to have a mother who understands the value of the boy’s having full, relationships with both parents.
That’s the background for NPO’s Hubin who makes the points that courts are biased against fathers who aren’t married to the mothers of their kids. Hubin goes on to say that equal parenting will have the effect of breaking down traditional gender roles in which mothers are presumed to stay home with the kids while Dad becomes a remote figure to them due to his need to earn the family’s daily bread. Finally, Hubin reminds viewers that equal parenting enhances children’s financial well-being. It does that in part by freeing mothers of the burden of almost-exclusive parenting time so they can do a better job of supporting themselves and not relying on an ex who may be less than thrilled to be still supporting her post-divorce.
Well done, Don and kudos to Family 411 for telling it like it is.
But that’s not all. The Examiner published this piece about the NPO and the results of the International Conference on Shared Parenting in which our own Ned Holstein played such a major role (Examiner, 2/11/16). And Utah’s Deseret News had this excellent piece featuring Ned and Utah NPO spearhead, Dan Deuel (Deseret News, 2/5/16).