The Duty to Protect Your Children

A parent has the right and the duty to protect his child and the child's future from harm. If you're involved in a custody dispute in Harris or Galveston County, Texas you must use the local family court system to assert this right and fulfill this obligation. A parent who becomes aware of dangerous behavior or damaging influences that threaten the children's physical safety or emotional well-being can ask the court to protect the children by removing them from the source of the immediate or potential danger. A court ordered award of sole custody or the severe restriction of visitation rights are the standard methods for ensuring children's safety. These actions may be taken if the court is shown clear and convincing evidence that the children are seriously endangered by parent’s lifestyle, or parents behavior, or the environment in which here it forces the child to live.

Documented cases of child abuse in any form meet the court systems serious endangerment standard. Physical, emotional, or sexual mistreatment of a child is child abuse.

"A parent who becomes aware of dangerous behavior or damaging influences ...can ask the court to protect the children by removing them from the source of the immediate or potential danger."

Physical abuse is any action that inflicts grave physical damage, even if the injury is temporary. Corporal punishment that causes bruising, bleeding, or burning is physical abuse. So is the denial of food, water, shelter, or medical treatment. Well the difference between acceptable physical discipline and physical abuse has never been defined in law, most courts and most parents know when the boundary between the two has been crossed.

Emotional abuse includes derogatory language and parental conduct calculated to destroy or seriously undermine a child's dignity and self-esteem. Constantly berating a child, humiliating a child in the presence of family, friends, or teachers, or isolating the child from the outside world for extended periods of time are examples of emotional abuse. Relentless insults or mockery are other forms of this destructive behavior.

The legal definition of sexual abuse encompasses virtually all actions involving a child intended to lead to the sexual gratification of either the child or a participating adult. While the most common forms of sexual abuse are outright sexual acts such as fondling, intercourse, oral copulation, this category of child abuse may also Include placing the child in sexually compromising positions, using the child to produce pornography, requiring the child to wear seductive clothing, and indulging in forms of physical discipline more commonly associated with adult sexuality than parental behavior. Whether the child consents to sexual activity or is forced to participate is irrelevant in determining if sexual mistreatment has occurred.

Neglect may also constitute serious endangerment courts have revoked custodial rights of parents who have left young children alone for hours or days parents whose primary meal planning function has been leaving paint chips within easy reach; Parents who fail to treat, or even notice, the serious physical or mental illnesses of a child ; And parents who have been unable or unwilling to provide a clean, warm room for their children to sleep in.

Elements of a custodial parent’s lifestyle may be judged dangerous, or potentially dangerous, to a child, even if the child is not directly involved in that lifestyle. And lifestyle that brings potentially harmful relationships into a child's life, for example can be considered to be dangerous enough to warrant removal of the child.

Source:  Father’s Rights by Jeffery M. Leving

Top 5 Myths About Single Fathers

Since 1973, the number of father only families has increased at a faster rate than has the number of mother-only families.  Today, 15% of all single-parent families are headed by a father.  Fathers facing divorce should consider carefully any decision they make about child custody that is based on old, outmoded ideas of "traditional" roles.  And although they are  changing somewhat slower than the rest of society, the courts are coming around to the realization that fathers can make just as successful single parents as mothers.  So it is time to reexamine some of the old myths about single fathers.

Myth #1:  Fathers who gain custody were themselves products of single-parent families.

There is no evidence to suggest that fathers who are awarded custody of their children were raised in any specific way.  Studies in the 1980s show that 80% of fathers who are awarded custody grew up in a two-parent households, but this was likely to be the result of a generational difference because divorces were far less common in the 1950s and 1960s than they are today.  Today's single father can come from any kind of background and upbringing.

Myth #2: Custodial fathers have high incomes

It is well documented that there is an extremely high percentage of mother-only families that are below the poverty level.  What is less well know is that more than 18 percent of father-only families are poor.  Another 21 percent are just above the poverty line.  If there is a custody dispute, the ability to afford a child is indeed one of the factors the court will decide in determining who gets custody. Higher income will give one party and advantage- if combined with other factors.  But remember, the amount of income is only relative to the other parent.  If both parents receive the same amount of income, even if it is very little, this will not sway the courts.

Myth #3: Most Custodial Fathers have remarried.

Although custodial fathers are more likely to be married than custodial mothers, the fact is that most custodial fathers (59%) are not currently married. 

Myth #4:  Custodial Fathers primarily receive custody of older boys

This myth really has two parts: first, the fathers primarily obtained custody of older children and second that fathers are more likely to receive custody of boys.  It is true that the children living in father-only families are older than those living in mother-only families.  This may be a hang-over effect of the "tender-years doctrine" which favored women over men for custody of young children.  Many family courts followed the doctrine for years, but it has fallen aside with other stereotypes and is not a lawful factor in Texas courts.  Still, 17.5 percent of single-father families include children younger than three, and about a third contain a preschooler.  Similarly, although children in father-only families are somewhat more likely to be boys, 44 percent of all children in such families are girls.

Myth #5:  Most custodial fathers are widowers.

This may have been true at one time, but being a widower is not were you will find most custodial fathers today.  In fact, you will only find 7.5 percent of single father households being widowers today.  As a matter of fact, 24.5 percent of single father households are headed by never-married fathers.

Many fathers make their decisions about whether to seek custody based on outmoded ideas about what is acceptable in society and in the courts.  But these myths need to be busted and fathers need to based their decisions on the real and current facts.  If you are a father involved in a custody battle, you need to seek the truth from an experienced family law attorney who will help you separate fact from fiction.  For more information, please visit us at www.bayshoreattorney.com