Father or Mother?.
...child is being given ever-increasing consideration in child custody disputes, the bias of women having greater household responsibilities still has a great influence on the opinions of many. 1993 statistics show that nearly 75 percent of those surveyed would be inclined to say that, in a divorce settlement involving child custody, the mother would be more likely to receive custody of the child. (Mason, 120) While some would argue that women do get custody in the majority of the cases, and thus fuel this opinion, it is this very bias that affects official matters and decisions. In custody disputes, the mother is often given more consideration than the father. Again, statistics show that in the majority of cases where the father receives custody, the mother works nights or is involved in educational pursuits and is clearly unable to properly care for the child. (Mason, 133) This is clear evidence that women are favored in custody decisions made by the court, perhaps due to recognition of the value of paternal instinct. For whatever reason, it has been the precedence set in the past and traditionally many judges find it difficult to change their ways. Oftentimes, the mother is perfectly capable of raising the child but falls short in an area that should be equally considered: moral responsibility. For this I can offer personal experience. In my case, both sets of parents (biological and step) have been through a divorce involving children. When my mother and father became divorced, the custody of the children (my sister and I) was given to my father. This was a valid decision as my mother was incredibly irresponsible in all senses of the word. My mother got remarried had more kids, and when she became divorced the second time, custody of the children was given to her this time. However, judgments on moral responsibility would have immediately seen her to be unfit for holding the parental responsibilities. Not only was she having an affair at the time of the divorce, but since the children where with her, my stepfather was forced to move out of the house he built and was paying for, and he lost almost every personal item he had, which later my mother sold just anger him more. My step father was reduced to seeing his kids at the most 3 times a week and pretty much lost everything he had worked so hard to provide for his family. The point must also be made that my stepfather is one of the most respectable and responsible people I have ever known. Anybody with full knowledge of the long-passed situation would agree that my stepfather was better fit for parenting his children than my mother. Yet the courts sided with my mom, without consideration of all the qualities that decides the best caretaker of the children, and my stepfather was left to look for a new li...