As family dynamics have changed in society, so have matters of child custody. For the past four decades, in Florida as well as in the United States in general, the roles of women within their families have changed as have those of men.
As women have evolved from homemakers to wage-earners, men have begun to spend more hours at home and less hours earning wages. In some homes, the roles have appeared to have reversed completely. The division of responsibilities within the home, however, is not always as it appears. It is not unusual for the wives to continue to oversee all of their children’s needs in addition to scheduling transportation for activities and helping with homework on top of working full-time.
As family court systems struggle to recognize and conform with changes in family structures, they often strive to achieve ‘gender neutral” decisions in matters of child custody. This may leave a dedicated, hard-working mom feeling cheated or stigmatized. For this reason, a better course of action may be to reach a custody agreement outside of the court room. By taking this course of action, couples avoid the adversarial atmosphere of a courtroom and also avoid allowing an impersonal judge to decide matters as important as child custody.
In order to best accomplish this goal, it may be helpful to seek out the services of an experienced attorney who has successfully handled custody cases in the past. By taking this route, parents are afforded the opportunity to agree upon how to best co-parent their children while setting a positive example.
Source: Huffington Post, “Child Custody and the Working Mom“, Lisa Helfend Meyer, June 01, 2013
