Every child deserves to have both parents in their lives, instead of basically losing a parent after one day in court. Please help me change Washington's Family Laws so that children can have easy access to both of their parents.

Washington does not encourage parents to share the role of parenting. If two people do not agree to joint custody or shared parenting time then the state does not establish a plan to raise their children as truly equal co-parents.

There are no unbiased evaluations required to determine which parent should get full custody, the judge just picks one parent to give full power to after listening to a couple hours of biased testimony. The party with the most money or best attorney usually wins. There is so much information to be considered and judges do not get the full truth. Psychological evaluations should be required in contentious divorces for the child’s benefit. The best interests of the child have been proven again and again to be equal time with both parents, barring any illegal and harmful acts.

Many cases (and families) would be better off if the courts ordered joint custody and required the parties to co-parent, especially if both people have been active in the child’s life and want to remain involved in raising their child. Judges should be able to impose joint custody regardless of the parents agreeing to it. Parents will figure out how to make it work if that is what the judge orders.

If Washington made fifty-fifty shared custody the default in the law (when neither parent has been proven to be abusive) it would be better for our children.  Court is an adversarial system, it makes you fight for what is right or what you want, but often people who start fighting have trouble stopping.  Child custody is the biggest fight in almost any divorce, so if we take the fighting out of the divorce the parents have the best chance to remain civil and really work for the good of the child.

Nobody is perfect; anyone can be made to look bad in front of a judge, but no child deserves to lose a parent so that the other parent can ‘win.’  When one parent ‘wins’ in a custody battle the child always loses.

Thank you,

George Early - Father