When parents separate or divorce, children should not automatically lose meaningful time with one of their parents.

Across America, families enter custody proceedings without a consistent presumption that children should maintain substantial relationships with both fit parents. The result can be expensive custody battles, years of conflict, and children losing meaningful time with a mother or father they love.

We are calling for a national push to make 50/50 shared parenting the starting point when both parents are fit and able to care for their children.

This does not mean forcing 50/50 custody in every case. Courts must retain the power to protect children in cases involving abuse, neglect, domestic violence, substance abuse, or circumstances where equal parenting time would not serve the child's best interests.

But when both parents are safe, capable, and committed, neither should have to begin a custody case fighting simply to remain an equal part of their child's life.

And this isn't new, or experimental. This framework has already been adopted in seven states: Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia, Florida, Missouri, Mississippi, and Louisiana—through bipartisan efforts.

Children deserve stability. They deserve meaningful relationships with both fit parents. And custody decisions should begin with the child's interests—not an assumption that one parent must become the primary parent while the other receives limited time.

What Does the Research Say?

The broader scientific literature on shared parenting is encouraging.

A major review of 60 studies comparing joint physical custody with sole physical custody found that children in joint physical custody generally had better outcomes across most measures—including in studies that accounted for parental conflict and family income.

A more recent systematic review examining 39 studies published between 2010 and 2022 similarly found that children in shared physical custody generally fared as well as or better than children in lone physical custody, while children living primarily with one parent tended to have the poorest outcomes.

Research has repeatedly associated the absence of an involved father with elevated risks of negative outcomes involving psychological and emotional well-being, behavioral problems, educational attainment, substance misuse, incarceration, and self-harm.

Every-other-weekend parenting cannot replicate meaningful, everyday parenting.

And the data isn't just encouraging as it pertains to better outcomes for children, and for reducing the fatherlessness epidemic: 
It also yields the greatest socioeconomic and health benefits for mothers. 

 

A survey of more than 2,200 single mothers across the United States found a striking relationship between parenting equality and economic opportunity.

Single mothers with 50/50 parenting schedules were reported to be 325% more likely to earn at least $100,000 per year as mothers who had their children 100% of the time.

Nine in ten mothers surveyed said they believed they could earn more if parenting responsibilities were shared more equally, while mothers sharing parenting equally reported substantially fewer problems finding time for self-care.

The system as it currently exists disproportionately harms families with the fewest resources to fight it.

Parenthood should not be reserved for those wealthy enough to sustain years of litigation or those best equipped with financial and legal resources.

Family law should protect children's relationships with their fit parents—not make those relationships dependent on who can afford the longest court battle.

What We Are Asking State Legislatures to Do

We call upon lawmakers in every U.S. state to enact legislation establishing:

A rebuttable presumption that joint legal custody and equal or approximately equal parenting time with two fit, willing, and safe parents is in the best interest of a child following parental separation or divorce.

Such legislation should:

1. Preserve judicial discretion when evidence demonstrates that equal parenting would not serve an individual child's best interest.
   Include strong protections and clear exceptions involving domestic violence, child abuse, neglect, abandonment, dangerous substance abuse, and other genuine threats to child safety.
2. Require courts that substantially restrict a parent's time to explain the factual basis for that decision.
3. Protect military parents from being penalized simply because they serve their country.
4. Protect parents with disabilities from discriminatory assumptions about their ability to parent.
5. Encourage parenting plans that maximize meaningful relationships with both fit parents rather than automatically reducing one parent to a visitor.
6. Promote mediation, cooperation, and early resolution rather than financially devastating litigation over which parent will "win" custody.
7. Ensure that neither mothers nor fathers receive preferential treatment because of sex.

We call on Congress and lawmakers across the United States to advance legislation establishing a rebuttable presumption of substantially equal shared parenting for fit parents, while maintaining strong protections for children and survivors of abuse.

Sign this petition to demand action toward a fairer national standard: protect children, protect safe and loving parent-child relationships, and make equal shared parenting the starting point—not the exception.