Shared parenting should get more attention by state legislature

The 2022 Missouri legislative session ended with not much getting done. With redistricting, it seemed as though opposing factions were fighting the entire session. Shared parenting legislation did not even get on the House floor. In the past, this legislation has passed the full House and Senate committees with overwhelming majorities.

This is a shame because with this simple change of rebuttable presumption of equal parenting time, custody battles would be less contentious. Fear of losing significant contact with children drives the battle from the beginning. If you take that fear away, then other issues can be worked out because the balance of power between parents is more evenly distributed.

We hear complaints that if we change custody statutes, then domestic abusers will get their children. This is simply not the case. We have domestic violence factors, along with anything else that is concerning to parents or judges. The vast majority of custody orders give the father every other weekend and maybe one night through the week. If a judge can give fathers every other weekend, they are obviously not a danger to their children.

Another complaint is that fathers just want their children so they don't have to pay child support. Does this make any sense? Why would a father spend tens of thousands of dollars to fight for equal time just so he doesn't have to pay $500 a month in child support? Fathers will financially go broke to get more time with their children because it's not about the money. It's about the time. And if anyone would say that mothers want their kids so they can get child support, they would be called misogynist and cruel. The truth is that both parents want maximized time with their children because they love them and because children need and want equal access to both parents.

Red flag laws have been in the news lately. That's when someone can "flag" a person as a danger and his/her Second Amendment rights can be suspended or removed, often without due process.

I personally can see where this could be misused, because I see it happening in family court all the time. An allegation is made against a parent, usually the father, and he is automatically put on supervised visitation or denied visitation with his children. This begins a long process to prove his innocence.

So these "red flag" laws suspend your parenting rights. In family court you are guilty until proven innocent, and there are rarely consequences for the false allegation either.

Family court lawyers bring in a lot of money on contentious custody battles so they are resistant to this change. To be honest, lawyers are probably fine with equal time in custody orders; they just want you to pay them to get it. Also, legislators and judges realize that they get money from the federal government for every dollar they collect in child support. This seems like a very big conflict of interest.

The Missouri state motto is: "Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law." Research has shown that equal shared parenting is in the child's best interest. Polling in Missouri shows that Missourians are in favor of this change. Statistics concerning fatherless children are abysmal. So what about following the Missouri Motto of "letting the welfare of the people be the supreme law"? Our children deserve better; our parents deserve better; our Missouri citizens deserve better.

Linda Reutzel, of Cape Girardeau, is chair of the Missouri chapter of the National Parents Organization and a national board member.