Protecting Parents and Children

In the state of Vermont, a competent mother or father can too easily be stripped of rights to parent their children. The state will "pick one parent" for legal rights and responsibilities, yet will often award the children to both parents for physical custody--because both parents are, in fact, competent.

Where both parents are competent, the courts must be directed to award legal custody to both parents. The current policy encourages dissent by offering divorcing parents too many reasons not to work together. A parent with no commitment to working together has only to prove him- or herself "better" to strip the other parent of legal rights --and "better" is defined differently each time a judge sits the bench because the statute is too complex.

Automatically awarding legal custody to both competent parents will clear the courts of specious custody cases and create an atmosphere in which the only choice parents have is to work together to make decisions.

Only parents who are clearly incompetent should be stripped of legal rights to guide their children. Not only is parenting a basic human right, but so is having both competent parents actively involved when one is young.