Parents should have equal time/access to their child.

Children with involved Fathers are more confident, better able to deal with frustration, better able to gain independence and their own identity, more likely to mature into compassionate adults, more likely to have a high self esteem, more sociable, more secure as infants, less likely to show signs of depression, less likely to commit suicide, more empathetic, boys have been shown to be less aggressive and adolescent girls are less likely to engage in sex.

63% of teen suicides come from fatherless homes. That’s 5 times the national average.

 

SOURCE: U.S. Dept of Health

90% of all runaways and homeless children are from fatherless homes. That’s 32 times the national average.

80% of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes. 14 times the national average.

 

SOURCE: Justice and Behavior

85% of children with behavioral problems come from fatherless homes. 20 times the national average.

 

SOURCE: Center for Disease Control

71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. 9 times the national average.

 

SOURCE: National Principals Association Report

75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes. 10 times the national average.

 

SOURCE: Rainbow’s for all God’s Children

85% of all youths in prison come from fatherless homes. 20 times the national average.

 

SOURCE: U.S. Dept. of Justice

Daughters of single parents without a Father involved are 53% more likely to marry as teenagers, 711% more likely to have children as teenagers, 164% more likely to have a pre-marital birth and 92% more likely to get divorced themselves.

91% of 701 fathers surveyed by the University of Texas at Austin agreed that there is a “father-absence crisis in America.” What were the 4 major obstacles for fathers to overcome? 1) Work demands 2) The media 3) Pop Culture 4) Finances

Researchers of Columbia University found that children living in two-parent households with a poor relationship with their father are 68% more likely to smoke, drink or use drugs compared to all teens in two-parent households. Moreover, teens in single-mother households fared much worse. They had a 30% higher risk than those in all two-parent households.

“Without two parents, working together as a team, the child has more difficulty learning the combination of empathy, reciprocity, fairness and self-command that people ordinarily take for granted. If the child does not learn this at home, society will have to manage his behavior in some other way. He may have to be rehabilitated, incarcerated, or otherwise restrained. In this case, prisons will substitute for parents.”

 

SOURCE: Morse, Jennifer Roback. “Parents or Prisons.” Policy Review, 2003

Children with Fathers who are involved are 40% less likely to repeat a grade in school.

 

SOURCE: National Household Education Survey

Children with Fathers who are involved are 70% less likely to drop out of school.

Children with Fathers who are involved are more likely to get A’s in school.

Children with Fathers who are involved are more likely to enjoy school and engage in extracurricular activities.

Even in high crime neighborhoods, 90% of children from stable 2 parent homes where the Father is involved do not become delinquents.

 

SOURCE: Development and Psychopathology 1993

Adolescent girls raised in a 2 parent home with involved Fathers are significantly less likely to be sexually active than girls raised without involved Fathers.

 

SOURCE: Journal of Marriage and Family, 1994

 

Who Needs Fathers?

• Research results show that 24 million children (34 percent) live absent their biological father.
• Research does show that children living with their married, biological (or adoptive) parents are less likely to be poor, to use drugs, to experience educational, health, emotional and behavioral problems, to be victims of child abuse, and to engage in criminal behavior than their peers with absent fathers.

Can Fathers Reduce Child Poverty?
The presence of a responsible father significantly reduces child poverty.

• Research results show that children in father-absent homes are five times more likely to be poor.
• According to the U.S. Census, in 2008, only 5.5 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to 10.3 percent of all children.

Can Fathers Promote Physical Health and Safety?
The presence of a responsible father promotes physical health and safety among children.

• Research results show that father presence can foster healthy physical, emotional, and social development.
• A growing body of research shows that children are healthier when fathers are involved in the daily care of their children's health and safety.

Can Fathers Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect?
The presence of a responsible father prevents child abuse and neglect.

• Research results show that the presence of a father in the home lowers the likelihood that a child will be physically and/or emotionally abused and neglected.
• Other results show that compared to living with both parents, living in a single parent home doubles the risk that a child will suffer physical, emotional or educational neglect.

Can Fathers Prevent Substance Abuse?
The presence of a responsible father reduces the likelihood that children will suffer substance abuse.

• Research results show that father closeness serves a protective factor against the use and abuse of alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and hard-drugs during adolescents.
• Thus, reducing father absence reduces the probability that children abuse substances.

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Father Involvement and Education 
When fathers are involved in the lives of their children, especially their education, their children learn more, perform better in school, and exhibit healthier behavior. Even when fathers do not share a home with their children, their active involvement can have a lasting and positive impact. There are countless ways to be involved in your child’s education at all ages.

According to a 2007 National Center for Education Statistics Report:

• 92% of students in grades K though 12 had parents who reported receiving any information from the school on the student’s performance.
• 83% had parents who received any information about how to help with homework.
• 59% of students in grades K through 12 had parents who were "very satisfied" with their child’s school; 55% had parents who were very satisfied with the school’s parent-staff interactions.

The presence of a responsible father promotes improves academic performance and reduces disciplinary problems among children.

• Research shows that even very young children who have experienced high father involvement show an increase in curiosity and in problem solving capacity. Fathers’ involvement seems to encourage children’s exploration of the world around them and confidence in their ability to solve problems.
  • Pruett, Kyle D. 2000. Fatherneed: Why Father Care is as Essential as Mother Care for Your Child. New York: Free Press.
• When non-custodial fathers are highly involved with their children’s learning, the children are more likely to get A's at all grade levels.
  • National Center for Education Statistics. October 1997. Fathers’ Involvement in Their Children’s Schools; National Household Education Survey. NCES 98-091R2. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.

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More on What the Research Says  

• Highly involved fathers also contribute to increased mental dexterity in children, increased empathy, less stereotyped sex role beliefs and greater self-control.
  • Abramovitch, H. 1997. Images of the "Father" in The Role of the Father in Child Development. M.E. Lamb, Ed., New York: John Wiley & Sons.
• Nonresident father contact with children and involvement in their schools within the past year are associated with the same three factors: fathers paying child support; custodial mothers being more educated; and custodial homes not experiencing financial difficulties.
  • National Center for Education Statistics. October 1997. Fathers’ Involvement in Their Children’s Schools; National Household Education Survey. NCES 98-091R2. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.
• High involvement at the early childhood level - frequency with which parents interact with their young children, such as how often they read, tell stories and sign and play with their children. These experiences contribute to children’s language and literacy development and transmit information and knowledge about people, places and things.
  • Bredekamp, S. and Copple, C. 1997. Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Family Courts violate our rights, taking them away, going above the law to enforce outrageous support fees that are not AFFORDABLE and take away from the children in the home, the family in the home of the party being forced to pay unreasonable fees. Judges state they are going above the law to enforce these court orders, disregarding the biological children that live with the father, disregarding the true income of both parties, expenses of both parties and disregarding the fathers true time share.. Just so they can make these high monthly orders and then threaten to remove these loving fathers from their homes to put them in Jail because they are paying what they can but they just are't able to pay the high incorrect amounts force upon them.

This is a petition asking that their be changes made to this court system. 1.) An advocate for the people be in court rooms weekly witnessing corrupt behaviors and actions taking place, reporting back to the state so the proper changes can be made, removal of the corrupt persons, right ups, some sort of repercussions for their actions letting Judges and  workers know that they work for the people not against them and if they are going to act in manners that are not abiding by our rights then they will be excused from their held position. 2.) Children are to have equal time automatically with both parents unless there is evidence "TRUE EVIDENCE" other wise provided that one parent is not stable or suitable for parenting. 3.) The family court services is a disgrace and should be banned from use period, mediation should be placed in private practices with Doctors that are not connected to the court system or the lawyers working for the other party, both parties are automatically responsible for the fees equally, If this took place alot of the parties making false alligations about the other would stop as they would not want to be forced into paying high counseling fees, those that have true concerns would move forward with the counseling. This would weed out most of the problem makers. 4.) Fathers that owe arrears or outrageously high monthly support orders due to false information imputed by a corrupt Judge, have the right to a review of his case. 5.) Stop threatening our Father's and sending them to jail. Father's are not criminals because they can't afford to pay outragous support fees. Father's belong with their families and not treated as criminals!

Children deserve to have a good life with all of their family. A mother is no more important to her children then a father is to his.

The best version of what the court system is made up of is so stated by Phyllis Schlafly "The Fatherphobia of Family Courts" The threat to the right of children to be raised in mother-father homes comes not only from gay adoptions. It also comes from the fatherphobia of family courts that deprive children of their fathers.
Under no-fault divorce, equality is the rule: Either spouse can terminate a marriage without the other spouse's consent and without any fault committed by the cast-off spouse or even alleged by the spouse initiating the divorce.

When it comes to determining child custody, however, sexism is the rule. By making allegations of fault (true or false, major or petty) against the male, the female can usually get the family court to grant her their children and his money.

Despite an extended string of U.S. Supreme Court decisions upholding the fundamental right of parents to the care, custody and control of their children (reaffirmed in a 2000 case), and despite a very high standard that the government must meet in order to terminate parental legal rights, fathers are routinely denied due process when it comes to determining child custody after divorce.

Family courts use a highly subjective rule called the best interest of the child as recommended by court-appointed child-custody evaluators or psychotherapists. There is no requirement that they have any first-hand experience with raising children, and they are allowed to use their own personal prejudices to overrule the parents.

But why aren't parents the ones best able to decide what is in the best interest of the child?

Family courts routinely rubber-stamp child-custody evaluators who recommend mother custody with the father getting so-called visitation only every other weekend. This is despite the mountain of social science research presented in Dr. Warren Farrell's book, "Father and Child Reunion," which proves that the best interest of the child of divorced parents is usually to give the child equally shared parent time.

Two dozen different measures listed in Dr. Farrell's book indicate that equally shared custody is better for children than mother custody. Dr. Farrell's book explains how most fathers provide benefits that mothers usually don't.

Yet, family courts typically rule as though fathers have no value except their money, and routinely banish fathers (who have not been proven to have committed any misdeed) from the lives of their children, except for every other weekend. Dr. Farrell describes how this typical custody pattern is a loser for the child, causing intense feelings of deprivation and depressive behavior.

In his new book "Twice Adopted," Michael Reagan tells how, as the child of divorced parents, he only got to see his father Ronald Reagan on alternating Saturdays. He wrote, "To an adult two weeks is just two weeks. But to a child, having to wait two weeks to see your father is like waiting forever."

American courts are presumed to be based on an adversarial system with each side arguing its best case, subject to standards of due process, evidence and proof. Somehow, that doesn't function in family courts.

Some divorce lawyers advise wives to manipulate the process by using a three-step technique: (1) make domestic violence or child abuse allegations, (2) demand full custody, (3) collect large amounts of child support, alimony, and legal fees.

If the father objects to this process, the wife can make more accusations. The evaluators then call it a high-conflict divorce and give custody to the wife, declaring that shared parenting won't work.

If the husband doesn't acquiesce, he is reprimanded by the court for "not buying into the process." In trying to defend himself against accusations, the father is denied the basic rights of a criminal defendant such as presumption of innocence and the necessity that the accuser provide proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Family courts force fathers to submit to interrogations and evaluations by court-chosen child-custody evaluators. Fathers are forced to pay the high fees of these private practitioners whom they have not hired, whose services they do not want, and whose credentials and bias are suspect.

The children are also subjected to these evaluators who attempt to turn the children against their parents in unrecorded interviews.

One of the most un-American aspects of family court procedure is the sentencing of fathers to attend re-education classes and psychotherapy sessions to induce them to admit fault and to indoctrinate them in government-approved parenting behavior. The court-approved psychotherapists report back to the court on the father's supposed progress, and his attendance at these Soviet-style re-education sessions must continue until he conforms.

A cozy relationship exists among the local lawyers and court-approved psychotherapists who recommend each other for this highly-paid work of making evaluations, counseling, and conducting re-education classes. The psychotherapists refuse to challenge each others' recommendations or question their competence, and the lawyers refuse to cross-examine them, because they all want to continue the profitable practice of referring business to each other and collecting fees from fathers who are desperate to see their own children.