Well, it would have to be to some extent a partnership between the parents too, since they have a child in common. I think it's far too easy at the moment in separated couples for one parent (usually the father) to say "I don't want to take any responsibility for my children" and on the other hand for one parent (usually the mother) to exclude the other parent from taking responsibility. There needs to be some legal recognition that regardless of current relationships of cohabiting or marriage, and regardless of whether there's shared residence or not, the parents of dependent children (so yes, ending at 18) do have a partnership of sorts and that has to be the case regardless of what they want. Obviously in cases of abuse and so on, there would have to be the ability to end the relationship, but children can't choose to "divorce" a parent they just don't like if their parents are married and living together, and I don't see why that should be significantly different if their parents are separated. I think a lot of the bad feeling that goes on (and again, I'm not talking about cases where there has been actual abuse) is due to the fact that the parent with residence thinks they can cut the other parent entirely out of their life by alienating them from their children.
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Date: 2007-07-26 01:07 pm (UTC)