Every domestic relations court will insist that their primary objective is to promote the best interest of children whose parents are separating. Judge Kathleen Rodenberg and the Domestic Relations Court of Clermont County are to be congratulated for taking concrete steps to ensure that children are not deprived of a full parent/child relationship just because their parents have chosen to live apart. In doing so, they have joined the forefront of a movement in Ohio and across the country to change the way we deal with separated parenting and earned for Clermont County a well-deserved ‘A’ from the National Parents Organization (NPO) in its scoring of Ohio county parenting time guidelines.
For decades, we have known that the thing that troubles children most about parental separation is the damage to their relationship with one of their parents. We have known, too, that children raised by single parents are at higher risk of a broad range of harms. This is not to denigrate the hard work that single parents do. It is merely to recognize that child rearing is difficult and children benefit from the active involvement of two loving parents.
There is now overwhelming scientific evidence that, in most cases, children of separated parents do best when the parenting responsibilities, including parenting time, are divided roughly equally between the parents. Robust research in the United States as well as in countries like Sweden, where equal parenting is the norm, have demonstrated this. And, surprisingly to some, research has shown that equal shared parenting is usually best for children even when one parent initially opposes it.
National Parents Organization (NPO) is working hard to make equal shared parenting the norm for parents living apart. Last year, NPO conducted a study of the standard parenting time guidelines that each Ohio domestic relations court is required to establish. We wanted to see which courts were promoting equal shared parenting. What NPO found was depressing: despite all the talk of promoting children’s best interest, the vast majority of Ohio courts—64 of the 88—were still locked into a 1950s parenting time model where the children were able to be in the care of one of their parents only on weekends through the school year.
This model of separated parenting—a relic from the Madmen days—is unsupported by research; there was never good evidence that it was in children’s best interest to have one of their parents placed in a secondary role. And, at this point in time, it is certainly obsolete and not reflective of contemporary parenting.
When the study was completed, Clermont County’s Domestic Relations Court was already among the better counties in protecting children’s relationship with each of their parents. The guideline parenting time schedule the court was using then received a grade of ‘C+’ from NPO. This might not sound like an honor roll grade but, where most counties received grades of ‘D’ or lower, it was something to be celebrated.
As of April 30, 2019, families in Clermont County are subject to a new parenting time guideline. The new guideline appropriately recognizes that every case is different and no one model of separated parenting will be best for all families. However, in line with research on child well-being, the new guidelines strongly encourage parents to share the parenting of their children equally to the fullest extent possible.
National Parents Organization is happy to reflect this improvement in the Court’s guidelines by changing the grade from ‘C+’ to a well-deserved ‘A’. We congratulate Judge Rodenberg on walking the walk and not merely talking the talk—on making children’s best interest more than a slogan.
Hubin, Ph.D. is a member of the National Board of National Parents Organization and the Chair of the Ohio NPO. He is a professor emeritus in the Philosophy Department and Founding Director of the Center for Ethics and Human Values at the Ohio State University.