Best Interest of the Child
Last week, during Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, I heard him say to the effect of men need to start stepping up and being better fathers. He isn’t the first person to make such a claim in the media. I like Barack Obama, but I’m getting really pissed at here shit like that.
I don’t know how about other states, but from what I’ve read about Ohio and New York, I am assuming that the rest are pretty similar to my state of Michigan. We have many commercials on television talking about how fathers need to raise their children, about how their children need them and so and son on. Also, there are commercials about adoption. I’m sure you’ve all seen them. They who a mother and child arguing over something or the parent making some sort of mistake. Then a voice comes on and says something like “You don’t have to be the parent perfect in order to be a foster parent.”
Now this is where I get really fucking angry.
Michigan’s child custody law are written to the effect of courts are only allowed to change custody arrangement for one of two reasons. First, the parents come to an agreement, which doesn’t happen because if they could agree on it, they wouldn’t be in court. The other is that there is to be a clear and substantial change of circumstances. Meaning, the parent with primary physical custody has to go to prison, beat and molest the child, have a spouse who beats and molests the child, be a serious drug addict, be rendered unable to care for the child (i.e. become a quadriplegic).
So why does this make me so fucking mad? Because I have all these fucking people saying that men need to step up and be fathers to their children, yet the law says that I CANNOT. It doesn’t matter how clean, safe and great my home is for my son. I cannot have joint custody. It does not matter that I have no criminal record and it would benefit my son for him to live with me as well as his mother. I cannot have joint custody. It DOES NOT matter how close I live to his mother and how convient it would be for our child. I CANNOT have joint custody.
Basically, the mother is deemed able to raise the child on her own. And the father is deemed able to see his child every other week-end and pay a shit load of money. Is this the way things should be? Do you all see why I am so pissed? Yeah. I’ve gone to my legislators. They all just look at me like it isn’t a big deal. Some even say, “Well that’s what happens when you have a kid out of wedlock.” And then the really fucking stupid ones say things like, “You should save your money and get a lawyer.” Yeah… save what money? Recently, I got yelled at by the judge for not having a two bedroom apartment without a roommate. So if I am renting a place with two bedrooms all by my self, then how the fuck can I afford pay child support?
So really, what is in the best interest of the child? To be raised by only one parent and have the other parent treated like a nothing but a damn checkbook? Or be raised by two loving parents who both have homes for the child and are treated as equals. I wonder what all the little boys of today are going to feel about raising children when they are Fathers? I bet they will probably say something like, “That just isn’t on of my values. That’s just not the way I was raised.”
If you have an opinion about this (which you should) write it down. Leave a comment.
