Concerning your article, Time or Money, state guidelines usually allow for extra time with the non-residential parent. And they should. Expenses don’t go away just because you are a visitor to your kids. That is the problem. Dads are considered visitors and paychecks, disregarding their emotional and physical support. The father’s household should be a consideration when it is both parents’ responsibility to raise the kids equally, in joint custody cases especially. You will, as attorneys, argue that your client (the mother most of the time), should not be forced to honor visitation orders. Only child support orders should be enforced. But, it is often a condition of visitation that a suitable residence be maintained by the non-residential parent before visitation overnight is allowed, or any visitation at all. Yet, you want to be hypocritical and demand that no consideration for that second household be allowed?
I think not. Both parents and households serve very essential purposes in child rearing. Like it or not. A new age is about to fall upon us. Dads do count for more than checks and visitors.
