A judge’s ruling sends two American children to France to live with their father in the Rutherford child custrody case. This case shows how difficult it is to make a decision as to the best interests of the children in a child custody case. Although this article is highly critical of the judge’s decision, the judge’s reasoning is typical of child custody cases where the custodial parent and noncustodial parent live far apart. The judge here ruled as she did based upon several key factors. First, she seemed to feel that the mother and father had been raising the children in both the American and European cultures, so the children would fit in in either country. Second, the mother tipped off the feds about the father’s shady business dealings to get him deported, thus showing a hostile attitude towards the father’s parental rights. Finally, mother commutes between NYC and LA, so the children were not being pulled out of a stable social situation and would not miss friends and teachers. She decided to send the children to France where they would go to school and mother could visit. This would give the parents as close to 50-50 time as possible.
The judge clearly focused on the facts that she found most compelling, such as the fact that father could not visit his children in America, but mother could visit them in France. This is important because both parents are important to a child. Fathers play just as important a role in a child’s life as mothers.
But as the article points out, this father has questionable business dealings. No one knows exactly what they are except him, but they got him deported. Is this the kind of father who will play an important role in his children’s lives? He would not even testify as to what his business dealings are. This is the one of the most important facts that has everyone questioning the judge.
Another important question is whether pulling children out of their native culture and language is really in their best interests. Why not send them to father over the summer vacation and several holidays such as Christmans-New Year’s every year? Wouldn’t that equalize parenting time? I myself find it hard to believe that such a radical change in life style would be in the children’s best interersts, even if they were introduced to the culture by the parents in the past.
This case is a perfect one for discussion of child custody issues. It has all of the big questions.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/09/two-american-kids-shipped-to-france-in-one-of-the-worst-custody-decisions-ever/
