Government & Politics

What do you think about shared parenting

Government & Politics

Posted by: CHoare

31st Jan 2012 03:26pm

do you think that Family Court should make shared care compulsary when a parent has been violent?


Comments 24

Anonymous
  • 19th Sep 2012 03:28pm

first and foremost you have to look at the childrens welfare, so i would think that the family court would not - should not have the children being looked after by a violent person.

Anonymous
  • 19th Sep 2012 03:28pm

first and foremost you have to look at the childrens welfare, so i would think that the family court would not - should not have the children being looked after by a violent person.

Anonymous
  • 19th Sep 2012 03:26pm

first and foremost is the childrens welfare, so i would think that the family court would not - should not have the children being looked after by a violent person.

Anonymous
  • 19th Sep 2012 03:23pm

first and foremost is the childrens welfare, so i would think that the family court would not - should not have the children being looked after by a violent person.

mistymae53
  • 9th Sep 2012 05:00pm

No! I thin the child should live with the non abusive parent, and the other parent should have supervised visits. I do think the child should be allowed to see the violent parent under strict supervision if they wish to!

katty
  • 2nd Sep 2012 07:50pm

No way in he'll. Becoming a parent is a gift and a privilege not everyone can have children if you do the wrong thing then too bad there is no excuse when it comes to children and their safety.

Pammyt43
  • 2nd Sep 2012 05:03pm

Hi everyone, I have read all your thoughts and agree totally against letting violent parents getting shared custody of their children. I was in a relationship much like what many of you have described but I have managed to be away from that for 4 years now. It was the hardest and scariest time of my life and it took a lot for me to get away from him running not once or twice but 5 times to get away. It begun from when my daughter was only 3months old to the age of 3 years old. I moved around from city to town and even spent 2 weeks in a woman's refuge until I found the home I have lived in for the past 4 years.

He did anger management and would tell me what he had learnt but would conveniently forget what he was suppose to do when he needed an alcohol boost. Nice person without alcohol but when he drank he was absolutely hideous and unpredictable to be around. When our daughter was only 2 years old he found us in Auckland. He spun me a sad story about having nowhere to live and that he needed somewhere to stay for just a month. I fell for it and he moved into the spare room. That one month turned into months...HJe started getting stupid on me again and I tried to get him to move on but he wouldn't and I couldn't get him out. In the end, I actually had to urge the team that held his anger management sessions to help me get away from him. Eventually they did when they realised that he believed he didn't have a problem with anger but more so when they saw it for themselves his violence on someone else during one of the sessions.

They managed to talk him into letting me leave on the grounds that he was compromising my benefit and that I could go to jail as well as get fined heavily for having him in my home. He actually thought I was going away to wait for him to get better and then we would get back together. It actually took him 2 years after I left to realise that I wasn't coming back to him ever! When we first split up I had to attend Relationship counselling and so did he. Not together but separately. This was because they told me he still had rights even though I was terrified of him and what he might do if he ever got a hold of our daughter without me or my family around to stop him from running. I attended all the sessions but he didn't and told them to get stuffed, so, I won that part of the battle. I was told that if I wanted to stop him from leaving the country with her I would have to get a passport for her and then hand it over to Department of Internal Affairs to hold which would stop any other passport application that he might make. However, this process would also stop me from taking her out of the country even for a holiday although I am the parent with full custody rights. The other thing is, he has to be notified of our movements around NZ (no specific address just cities or towns), the schools or childcare I want to enroll her in because he has the right to stop me from making any of these decisions by myself.

Anyway, I was the only one who needed protection from him. He never ever did anything to his daughter except to threaten me with running away with her but that was only to play with my mind. He knew that he was not capable of being a proper dad without me around to back him up and so in some small way I knew that he would never go for shared custody of her . And because he has never tried to take her from me or even try for shared custody, I have never fought against his right to see his daughter when she is visiting the city he lives in. My mother lives there too so my daughter gets to visit her father in a supervised environment where I do not have to be present. He loves his child enough to be happy with that.

It has been hard work and lots of sleepless nights at the beginning but now, I can safely say that although we are not together our child comes first for both of us with me having full custody and him having supervised visiting rights :)

Anonymous
  • 18th May 2012 03:31pm

Family Court is a joke!!! They claim to have the childs best interests at heart but i have waaaay too many stories from friends and family members who know of people that have been through the Court system and as such been forced into situations that are worse off for the child. By that I mean the children have been forced, sometimes kicking and screaming into supervised visitation with their abusive fathers! NO KID SHOULD HAVE TO GO THROUGH THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The parent who has been violent should have NO contact with their children until they have acknowledged the way they behave is wrong, received extensive counselling and addressed ALL their issues (as most people aren't violent to the ones they love for no reason whether it be anger management issues etc). I mean come on it has been proven time and time again that children that are or have been in domestically violent homes have a significant chance of continuing that type of behavior. It should be more about breaking the cycle and getting all parties involved help so that they can sort their issues out and do the best for the children in the long run.

Focus on the rights of the children to grow up in a non violent household rather than the paternal rights - as at the end of the day as adults we make our own choices and have the ability to change the way we act and behave.

mistymae53
  • 9th May 2012 05:35pm

I think shared parenting is a good idea and protects the rights of both parents. In saying this I do believe this should be between two parents where there are absolutely no safety issues in relation to the safety of the children. I think there should be strong supervision by authorities of both parents if there are any safety issues in relation to the children's welfare! After all children, where possible, do have a right to have equal access to both parents!

CHoare
  • 6th Mar 2012 06:32pm

ever since the family courts ordered shared care, my children have become even more psychologically damaged than before court

Anonymous
  • 23rd Feb 2012 12:19pm

No because the children will grow up thinking that violence is ok and normal and it's not i have 2 step sons and both their parents were violent to each other and as adults now there is violence in their relationships and so the cycle still goes on it's time to break the cycle and let these poor children have some stability in their life while they are young as they are our future.

s00ze
  • 20th Feb 2012 10:29am

Absolutely not, why put an innocent child at risk, when there has been a history of vilence, thats just asking for trouble!!

Anonymous
  • 20th Feb 2012 09:43am

No way: Child safety should be paramount regardless, if a parent is/has been violent should not have shared care of children as a leopard does not change it's spots. In the majority of child abuse cases they are known to social services, and have violent issues, the problem is they don't really look at child safety but more to that fact they are family, they need to get past the fact being family does not insure child safety!

TimsGirl
  • 18th Feb 2012 04:53am

littletootis spot on.

And unfortunately, these abusers just use family court as yet another way to abuse their ex partners.

I went through hell for years... while be abused and stalked me, and someone who I thought had been a best friend who turned out to be one of his many mistresses, turned into a worse stalker than he ever was.

I kicked my ex out for bashing our then 5yo daughter - the court said that was irrelevant. How the hell is child abuse irrelevant to custody??? His main mistress also threatened terrible things against my daughter, and went out of her to repeatedly say my ex had done nothing wrong when he bashed me and I lost our baby a couple of weeks after we split (I should add because he turned up wanting valuables and money for drugs - both of which he'd taken all of when I kicked him out and I had nothing to give him).

According to her, violence is "normal" in relationships and "everyone does it", it's "perfectly acceptable", and because he didn't know I was pregnant, he did nothing wrong badly bashing me because I couldn't give him money. The precise reason I DIDN'T tell him was because I knew it was highly likely he'd bash me on purpose for being pregnant.

They both have multiple convictions for drug use, and him for things like theft etc. They are both diagnosed with severe personality disorders and this woman he was living with when having our daughter over, had lost custody of her own daughter due to her abuse of her own child (same age as my daughter) and wasn't even allowed supervised access for years, yet the family court who wouldn't let her near her own child, would happily let her be alone with my daughter, who she had threatened terrible violence against?!?!

My ex and his main lover are both dangerous, violent, junkies who are seriously mentally disturbed. They'd have given my ex weekends and half holidays if he'd wanted it, but after one lousy weekend with our daughter, he decided he'd proven his point and dropped back to asking for just one day a fortnight, no nights.

I kept telling the court he wasn't at all interested in seeing our daughter,it was just his way to manipulate and hurt me. He proved to be a boldfaced liar (lied about his criminal record and spent years claiming he wasn't using drugs, til they eventually ordered drug testing and he admitted he'd been lying all along and was a daily user - and even then, they allowed him to "give his word" he wouldn't use with our daughter there - how can a proven repeat compulsive liar be allowed to give his "word"??? and anyone with an ounce of knowledge about drugs knows that someone who uses 13 days a fortnight and stops for one day is going to be withdrawing and that's when they become most abusive and violent.

Same with child support.... when he would blow off most visits because he was working 7 days a week, he was praised as working hard to provide for his daughter - despite the fact he wasn't paying a cent of child support, while I was stuck on the disability pension from the serious injuries he gave me and was going without basics like needed medication and doctors visits because that was the only way to afford rent and food - and when our daughter did go, I'd have to send spare clothes because he wouldn't clothe her, and I even had to send money for food most of the time. But at the same time, when I started working part time against doctors orders, and ONLY when my daughter was with her father or grandparents (who were also involved in the family court and she only goes there because the court ordered it), I was told I was "selfish" and "obsessed with career" for working 2-3 days a week to put food on the table - And keep in mind, since my daughter was older than 6 by then, centrelink decided I would work 7-14 hours a week so I HAD to work to keep my pension. If I didn't work, centrelink wouldn't give me a payment.Yet apparently I'm selfish and career obsessed because I kill myself working part time to feed my child because her father wouldn't pay a cent for her despite working 7 days a week in a good job. I should have apparently sat at home crying the whole time, out of genuine fear I would never see my daughter again (oh yeah, my ex threatened we'd never see her again a few times, that apparently didn't matter either because the court said "oh he wasn't serious, it was just empty threats". They don't know him, those threats weren't empty, and even if they honestly believed they were, they are still threats, and still abuse).

Thankfully, after the final orders were made in court, giving him what he asked for, within two months he stopped seeing her altogether. He'd got what he wanted - he proved he could get away with absolutely anything and that he could do whatever he wanted to us and the courts would still back up his "right" to posess his child. And thankfully we haven't heard a peep out of him in two years now :)

I still get my house egged, my mail stolen, his mates doing burnouts outside of my house in the early hours of the morning, his main mistress still stalks me online - she has the audacity to join forums I'm a member of and complain about his "terrible ex wife" and abuses me by claiming all the things they do to me that I'm doing to them - when I don't even know where they live and I don't want to. You'd think after all this time, she'd take a hint that he makes me sick to my core and want nothing to do with him, but she's painfully aware that if I would take him back, he'd dump her in an instant and come crawling back, so she still stalks me online and abuses me with making up lies about me in forums I've been a member of for years.

She's had him for five years now... she should be more worried about his other long term mistresses, the ones he was sleeping with before he even met her and still sleeps with.
But I'm a little off topic. In short... being a parent is NOT a right. It's a responsibility, and a violent parent loses any "right" to be in their child's life and it's about time the family court started putting the child's right to safety first, and also to start caring about the poor battered women going through court.

The hell I went through, being mocked and ridiculed by one particular court representative - for my PTSD that I suffer as a result of the abuse, for my injuries that I suffer from the abuse, and from a pre existing medical condition, was absolutely disgusting. PTSD doesn't make someone a bad parent - people with PTSD need help to recover from the trauma, not further traumatising from a sick system that treats victims as bad parents for daring to be traumatised.

TimsGirl
  • 18th Feb 2012 04:53am

littletootis spot on.

And unfortunately, these abusers just use family court as yet another way to abuse their ex partners.

I went through hell for years... while be abused and stalked me, and someone who I thought had been a best friend who turned out to be one of his many mistresses, turned into a worse stalker than he ever was.

I kicked my ex out for bashing our then 5yo daughter - the court said that was irrelevant. How the hell is child abuse irrelevant to custody??? His main mistress also threatened terrible things against my daughter, and went out of her to repeatedly say my ex had done nothing wrong when he bashed me and I lost our baby a couple of weeks after we split (I should add because he turned up wanting valuables and money for drugs - both of which he'd taken all of when I kicked him out and I had nothing to give him).

According to her, violence is "normal" in relationships and "everyone does it", it's "perfectly acceptable", and because he didn't know I was pregnant, he did nothing wrong badly bashing me because I couldn't give him money. The precise reason I DIDN'T tell him was because I knew it was highly likely he'd bash me on purpose for being pregnant.

They both have multiple convictions for drug use, and him for things like theft etc. They are both diagnosed with severe personality disorders and this woman he was living with when having our daughter over, had lost custody of her own daughter due to her abuse of her own child (same age as my daughter) and wasn't even allowed supervised access for years, yet the family court who wouldn't let her near her own child, would happily let her be alone with my daughter, who she had threatened terrible violence against?!?!

My ex and his main lover are both dangerous, violent, junkies who are seriously mentally disturbed. They'd have given my ex weekends and half holidays if he'd wanted it, but after one lousy weekend with our daughter, he decided he'd proven his point and dropped back to asking for just one day a fortnight, no nights.

I kept telling the court he wasn't at all interested in seeing our daughter,it was just his way to manipulate and hurt me. He proved to be a boldfaced liar (lied about his criminal record and spent years claiming he wasn't using drugs, til they eventually ordered drug testing and he admitted he'd been lying all along and was a daily user - and even then, they allowed him to "give his word" he wouldn't use with our daughter there - how can a proven repeat compulsive liar be allowed to give his "word"??? and anyone with an ounce of knowledge about drugs knows that someone who uses 13 days a fortnight and stops for one day is going to be withdrawing and that's when they become most abusive and violent.

Same with child support.... when he would blow off most visits because he was working 7 days a week, he was praised as working hard to provide for his daughter - despite the fact he wasn't paying a cent of child support, while I was stuck on the disability pension from the serious injuries he gave me and was going without basics like needed medication and doctors visits because that was the only way to afford rent and food - and when our daughter did go, I'd have to send spare clothes because he wouldn't clothe her, and I even had to send money for food most of the time. But at the same time, when I started working part time against doctors orders, and ONLY when my daughter was with her father or grandparents (who were also involved in the family court and she only goes there because the court ordered it), I was told I was "selfish" and "obsessed with career" for working 2-3 days a week to put food on the table - And keep in mind, since my daughter was older than 6 by then, centrelink decided I would work 7-14 hours a week so I HAD to work to keep my pension. If I didn't work, centrelink wouldn't give me a payment.Yet apparently I'm selfish and career obsessed because I kill myself working part time to feed my child because her father wouldn't pay a cent for her despite working 7 days a week in a good job. I should have apparently sat at home crying the whole time, out of genuine fear I would never see my daughter again (oh yeah, my ex threatened we'd never see her again a few times, that apparently didn't matter either because the court said "oh he wasn't serious, it was just empty threats". They don't know him, those threats weren't empty, and even if they honestly believed they were, they are still threats, and still abuse).

Thankfully, after the final orders were made in court, giving him what he asked for, within two months he stopped seeing her altogether. He'd got what he wanted - he proved he could get away with absolutely anything and that he could do whatever he wanted to us and the courts would still back up his "right" to posess his child. And thankfully we haven't heard a peep out of him in two years now :)

I still get my house egged, my mail stolen, his mates doing burnouts outside of my house in the early hours of the morning, his main mistress still stalks me online - she has the audacity to join forums I'm a member of and complain about his "terrible ex wife" and abuses me by claiming all the things they do to me that I'm doing to them - when I don't even know where they live and I don't want to. You'd think after all this time, she'd take a hint that he makes me sick to my core and want nothing to do with him, but she's painfully aware that if I would take him back, he'd dump her in an instant and come crawling back, so she still stalks me online and abuses me with making up lies about me in forums I've been a member of for years.

She's had him for five years now... she should be more worried about his other long term mistresses, the ones he was sleeping with before he even met her and still sleeps with.
But I'm a little off topic. In short... being a parent is NOT a right. It's a responsibility, and a violent parent loses any "right" to be in their child's life and it's about time the family court started putting the child's right to safety first, and also to start caring about the poor battered women going through court.

The hell I went through, being mocked and ridiculed by one particular court representative - for my PTSD that I suffer as a result of the abuse, for my injuries that I suffer from the abuse, and from a pre existing medical condition, was absolutely disgusting. PTSD doesn't make someone a bad parent - people with PTSD need help to recover from the trauma, not further traumatising from a sick system that treats victims as bad parents for daring to be traumatised.

TimsGirl
  • 18th Feb 2012 04:52am

littletootis spot on.

And unfortunately, these abusers just use family court as yet another way to abuse their ex partners.

I went through hell for years... while be abused and stalked me, and someone who I thought had been a best friend who turned out to be one of his many mistresses, turned into a worse stalker than he ever was.

I kicked my ex out for bashing our then 5yo daughter - the court said that was irrelevant. How the hell is child abuse irrelevant to custody??? His main mistress also threatened terrible things against my daughter, and went out of her to repeatedly say my ex had done nothing wrong when he bashed me and I lost our baby a couple of weeks after we split (I should add because he turned up wanting valuables and money for drugs - both of which he'd taken all of when I kicked him out and I had nothing to give him).

According to her, violence is "normal" in relationships and "everyone does it", it's "perfectly acceptable", and because he didn't know I was pregnant, he did nothing wrong badly bashing me because I couldn't give him money. The precise reason I DIDN'T tell him was because I knew it was highly likely he'd bash me on purpose for being pregnant.

They both have multiple convictions for drug use, and him for things like theft etc. They are both diagnosed with severe personality disorders and this woman he was living with when having our daughter over, had lost custody of her own daughter due to her abuse of her own child (same age as my daughter) and wasn't even allowed supervised access for years, yet the family court who wouldn't let her near her own child, would happily let her be alone with my daughter, who she had threatened terrible violence against?!?!

My ex and his main lover are both dangerous, violent, junkies who are seriously mentally disturbed. They'd have given my ex weekends and half holidays if he'd wanted it, but after one lousy weekend with our daughter, he decided he'd proven his point and dropped back to asking for just one day a fortnight, no nights.

I kept telling the court he wasn't at all interested in seeing our daughter,it was just his way to manipulate and hurt me. He proved to be a boldfaced liar (lied about his criminal record and spent years claiming he wasn't using drugs, til they eventually ordered drug testing and he admitted he'd been lying all along and was a daily user - and even then, they allowed him to "give his word" he wouldn't use with our daughter there - how can a proven repeat compulsive liar be allowed to give his "word"??? and anyone with an ounce of knowledge about drugs knows that someone who uses 13 days a fortnight and stops for one day is going to be withdrawing and that's when they become most abusive and violent.

Same with child support.... when he would blow off most visits because he was working 7 days a week, he was praised as working hard to provide for his daughter - despite the fact he wasn't paying a cent of child support, while I was stuck on the disability pension from the serious injuries he gave me and was going without basics like needed medication and doctors visits because that was the only way to afford rent and food - and when our daughter did go, I'd have to send spare clothes because he wouldn't clothe her, and I even had to send money for food most of the time. But at the same time, when I started working part time against doctors orders, and ONLY when my daughter was with her father or grandparents (who were also involved in the family court and she only goes there because the court ordered it), I was told I was "selfish" and "obsessed with career" for working 2-3 days a week to put food on the table - And keep in mind, since my daughter was older than 6 by then, centrelink decided I would work 7-14 hours a week so I HAD to work to keep my pension. If I didn't work, centrelink wouldn't give me a payment.Yet apparently I'm selfish and career obsessed because I kill myself working part time to feed my child because her father wouldn't pay a cent for her despite working 7 days a week in a good job. I should have apparently sat at home crying the whole time, out of genuine fear I would never see my daughter again (oh yeah, my ex threatened we'd never see her again a few times, that apparently didn't matter either because the court said "oh he wasn't serious, it was just empty threats". They don't know him, those threats weren't empty, and even if they honestly believed they were, they are still threats, and still abuse).

Thankfully, after the final orders were made in court, giving him what he asked for, within two months he stopped seeing her altogether. He'd got what he wanted - he proved he could get away with absolutely anything and that he could do whatever he wanted to us and the courts would still back up his "right" to posess his child. And thankfully we haven't heard a peep out of him in two years now :)

I still get my house egged, my mail stolen, his mates doing burnouts outside of my house in the early hours of the morning, his main mistress still stalks me online - she has the audacity to join forums I'm a member of and complain about his "terrible ex wife" and abuses me by claiming all the things they do to me that I'm doing to them - when I don't even know where they live and I don't want to. You'd think after all this time, she'd take a hint that he makes me sick to my core and want nothing to do with him, but she's painfully aware that if I would take him back, he'd dump her in an instant and come crawling back, so she still stalks me online and abuses me with making up lies about me in forums I've been a member of for years.

She's had him for five years now... she should be more worried about his other long term mistresses, the ones he was sleeping with before he even met her and still sleeps with.
But I'm a little off topic. In short... being a parent is NOT a right. It's a responsibility, and a violent parent loses any "right" to be in their child's life and it's about time the family court started putting the child's right to safety first, and also to start caring about the poor battered women going through court.

The hell I went through, being mocked and ridiculed by one particular court representative - for my PTSD that I suffer as a result of the abuse, for my injuries that I suffer from the abuse, and from a pre existing medical condition, was absolutely disgusting. PTSD doesn't make someone a bad parent - people with PTSD need help to recover from the trauma, not further traumatising from a sick system that treats victims as bad parents for daring to be traumatised.

littletoot
  • 17th Feb 2012 10:23pm

There are no circumstances that I can think of that justifies a shared care plan when one adult in a relationship is being violent to another. There is always a flow on impact to the children, which can scar them for life. Emotional abuse and threats to harm or kill or destroy something should also be considered a reaon not to make a shared care order. Unfortunately I dont think the Family Court judiciary is sensitive enough to the degree to which a violent partner can make the adult who has suffered the abuse appear to be incapeable or unable to parent. Usually their self esteem and self confidence has been shattered and they often believe the violent partner when He /She tells them they are useless, a bad mother, mentally ill.etc. Sometimes the services that are put in place to assist victims of domestic violence become the key reasons why a parent believes they are unable to flee or seek protection.

TimsGirl
  • 18th Feb 2012 05:09am
There are no circumstances that I can think of that justifies a shared care plan when one adult in a relationship is being violent to another. There is always a flow on impact to the children,...

oh yeah... forgot to add. I stayed with my ex for years after he started bashing me because I was well aware of what family court is like.

They give violent men shared custody, men like my ex start bashing the kids once the wife is no longer there to bash and as revenge for the wife for leaving.

For years, I was able to keep my daughter safe from harm, making sure she was never alone with him, and quite simply he rarely ever wanted to be around our daughter, even when I was battered and injured, he'd take off as soon as he woke up on his days off purely to avoid spending even a second with her. Same on the days he was working - he'd come home, demand dinner, and then go out and spend all night with his drug dealer (and later his mistresses which I was unaware of at the time) until bed time.

But I knew if I kicked him out, he'd do exactly what he did when I kicked him out - he'd demand his "right" to shared custody and claim how much he wanted our daughter.

If you stay with a violent abuser, you're accused of not caring about your children, but in many cases, it's like my life - it's far safer if you stay - while you're together, he leaves the kids alone, when you split, he abuses them to get back at you and because he no longer has a wife to bash to let his anger out on.

Battered women are abused terribly by the court system. You can't win.

DOCS are no better - telling me if I let my ex back, if I even let him see our daughter outside of court ordered times, they'd say I was negligent and take her because of his long standing history of violence against me and his violent attack on our daughter that I kicked him out for her - BUT they wouldn't even investigate him when our daughter was with him despite his admission to the court he was using drugs every day, despite his history of violence, despite his mental illness, and despite them having removed his live in mistress' daughter because of her violence, drug use and serious personality disorder. They claimed it was a matter for the family court - who in turn said it was a matter for DOCS, neither would initiate anything, claiming it was up to the other. But I'd be a bad parent if I allowed him a supervised visit with my daughter, and risk having her removed for letting him see her, but if the court orders it, it's ok????

Battered wives just simply can't win.

musicmum
  • 17th Feb 2012 07:47pm

Definitely NO!! No kid deserves to be around violent people,the Family Court should NEVER allow children EVER to be in the care of anyone who has ever been violent,as they will always be vunerable to an outburst at anytime. Kids should only ever receive unconditional LOVE. Sadly a lot of parents are not capable of this,we need education and assistance for these parents who themselves may have been victim of violence are think it is a normal part of life.

Cake67
  • 14th Feb 2012 01:26pm

Violence in any way shape or form is not acceptable but in the case of children the court has to have a duty of care, remembering that every child has the right to grow up without fear of violence. The court should also take each case on it's own merit as some people can not cope with caring for children on their own and this should be considered as well.

mel
  • 9th Feb 2012 04:03pm

absolutly NO!!! you are putting the childs life back at risk if you do that

CHoare
  • 5th Feb 2012 09:59pm

its aobut time they changed the laws to protect children

littletoot
  • 18th Feb 2012 09:34pm
its aobut time they changed the laws to protect children

I agree, but as long as the Judiciary and many others in society continue to view children as the parents posession and see parents as having the 'right' to have a relationship with their child nothing will ever change. I believe that in these circumstances the needs of the child and the protective adult should have precedence over the so called rights of the abuser. I think violent adults , regardless who is being physically assaulted (parent or child) should loose their right to make such a claim proportionate to the severity of thier violence and threats. At the end of the day, the guiding issue should be what is in the best interests of the child. Relationships and parenting are the most difficult aspects of a persons life which do not come with instruction books. However there are some basic standards that should not be allowed to be ignorred or bypassed no matter who the parent is. Family violence is not restricted to one socio-economic group, but those one high income often 'buy' the measn to disguise or hide the assaults.

Anonymous
  • 5th Feb 2012 05:37pm

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!!!!!

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