In this article I’d like to talk a little bit about the subject of the negative effects of child custody laws. Divorce is extremely simple if there are no children involved. Basically, there’s just an equitable distribution of assets and the two individuals part ways. Custody, however, is a huge issue in divorce proceedings and it can result in years of litigation and hundreds of thousands of dollars lost during the process.

A large amount of money is at stake when there is a disputed child custody issue. The emotional distress I experienced from my child custody dispute was beyond anything I’ve ever experienced . I’m a combat veteran, I’ve been shot at, and I’ve lost both my parents; but the most painful personal situation I’ve ever experienced was when my custody rights were violated and I had my children taken away from me.

There have been several studies that have shown that joint custody and shared parenting are absolutely the best possible scenario for any child in a divorced household. The child will be happiest when his or her parents live close enough to one another that they can spend equal amounts of time with both parents. This is, of course, assuming that both parents want to be involved.

The reason why this scenario is so rare is that the divorce industry simply doesn’t encourage it. There is too much money to be made through the litigation and administration of split child custody arrangements. They do this by setting up a custodial and non-custodial parent; if the child spent equal time at both homes there would be no need for child support. By giving one parent custody over the child, it automatically sets up a situation where thd custodial parent must receive some form of compensation from the non-custodial parent. Usually it is the mother who keeps full custody and the father who must pay.

The way the divorce industry makes money on this is an old banking trick. They collect money from one party and hold it a few days or a week later, and they make money on the float—or the interest that collects during the time it is in their account. That amount may not seem like a lot initially, but when all the child support payments each year are added together, it suddenly becomes a large amount. The amount of the child support has almost nothing to do with what is actually best for the child.

I spent everything I had trying to gain custody of my own children. When in reality it was a foregone conclusion that my wife would get custody—I’m a father and fathers are discriminated against in the system. My ex-wife would have had to have been a drug addict, in prison, or suffering from a diagnosable mental illness for me to win custody of my kids. If I’d known how impossible the system was to begin with, I would never have tried to take them on. I would have attempted to negotiate better visitation rights or something that would really have benefitted me.

There’s a growing phenomenon called The Friendly Parent doctrine which is gaining more recognition in this country. It says that the parent most likely to include the other parent in the parenting process should get custody. However this doesn’t apply in my state. So all my ex-wife had to do to get sole custody is simply not include me. She blocked me out, refused to communicate and played the game. And it worked because the system is set up to place her in the advantage.

I am more motivated by child custody issues than anything else in my work. Like many fathers, I want to be part of my children’s lives and this is the reason behind my writing, my blogs, and my websites. For more information, please visit my site: http://www.greatcustody411.com.