This is a heartbreaking topic, but it is important to publish what goes on inside Family Courts, and Sue Reid is to be applauded for doing so. The present Family Law system which routinely excludes one or other parent from the lives of their children after divorce is nothing short of evil. It puts parents at war with other, and it rips the heart out of whichever one loses, often leading to an inability to function at work or socially, and all too often leads to alcohol/drug dependency or suicide. The notion that doing this to one or other parent is somehow in the best interests of the children is patently absurd, but this is the rationale which Family Courts advance for what they do.

Sue Reid spoke to me before writing the article, but incorrectly says that we believe the pendulum is swinging against mothers, and that half of the children of splitting parents now end up in the care of the father. This is not so. The article quotes Child Support Agency figures showing that the instances where mothers are registered as the non resident parent rose from 57,000 in 2005 to 65,800 in March this year; however, during the same period the figures for fathers rose even more steeply, so that the proportion of non-resident parents who are mothers actually fell from 6% to 5%!

Sadly, Family Courts have not kept pace with the changing role of dads in the home. One third of child-care in the average home is now done by fathers, but it’s still dads who lose out 95% of the time in the Family Court lottery.