A new bill under consideration by the Tennessee State Legislature would evenly split parenting time between divorcing parents with exceptions only being made when one parent can prove the other is completely unfit, or the parents otherwise agree to their own parenting-time schedule.
It must be noted that many other articles on the ‘net refer to “custody” vs “parenting time.” These phrases are not interchangeable. The bill before the Tennessee legislature is about equal parenting time, not joint legal custody. Yes there is a big difference.
In fact, the bill (HB 2916, Bell; and SB 2881, Bunch, Ketron) removes the presumption of joint custody and instead replaces the joint custody presumption with an equal time presumption.
“Parenting time” is defined pretty much the way the words express it: It is about how much time a child spends with each parent, and the bill proposes that the children should spend 50% of their time in each parent’s household.
Legal custody is about which parent makes the major life choices for the children (such as medical and dental care, religion, education and extra-curricular activities).
Now, in essence there is a high-likelihood that with equal time, joint custody will also be awarded, but not necessarily so.
Rep. Mike Bell, a Riceville Republican and the bill’s key sponsor, said he plans to amend the bill to make clear that the 50-50 parenting standard cannot be applied in cases where one parent has been convicted of some form of domestic violence.
Bell’s intentions are all well and good, but frankly, not all domestic violence cases end in convictions even though abuse has occurred. Mental and psychological abuse to children is also hard to prove, in a court of law.
A rule of thumb I go by is that since a small number of divorce cases (typically less than 5% in most states), ever go to court over custody issues outside of child support, for those who do, there’s a great chance that the parents will find it difficult to make joint decisions about the major aspects of a child’s life. Those parents who can—or at least have a more viable shot at doing so—settle out of court. Exceptions of course are made for domestic abuse victims who may not want to deal with a court battle.
If parenting-time or custody ends up in court, then the courts should not rely on a presumption, but should dig further, and frankly, genuinely and sincerely with the best interests of the children in mind. Families are not cookie cutter.
What do you think? Should the courts start off with a presumption of equal time for parents if the parents couldn’t decide on their own?
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