The real point to consider is – will it really make a difference on a day-to-day basis? Will it cause difficulties that you either have to put up with anyway or ought to?
Non-resident parents have a lot of separate rights, for example, under the Human Rights Act, by their ability to make an application to the court for orders about the child’s upbringing, by their right to have certain information from schools and doctors etc.
It is a fairly rare situation where a court would say that shared parental responsibility cannot be made to work.
A resident parent should also take account of certain realities. If parents cannot agree about something, will they really take the dispute to the court?
This will be affected by a number of points, including, for example, MONEY. Can the non-resident carer afford to be constantly referring disagreements to the court? How easily can they take time off work to go to court? How likely is it that the non-resident parent would be successful if they did apply to the court? Does the non-resident parent really want to have an argument in court (as opposed to over the telephone) about a relatively small point? Is there some other way of avoiding arguments about small issues or reassuring both parents? For example, is there a helpful third party such as a grandparent or family friend who can help negotiate smaller points?
Another reality check: even if a parent does not have parental responsibility, this does not stop them making an application to the court to have contact, or to challenge the decision of the parent with primary care.
Ask yourself whether in all those circumstances it really makes any difference to you whether a non-resident father has parental responsibility?
Think very hard about your reasons for objecting. How would they sound as tabloid headlines? What would your mother or best friend say? How much is your view influenced by the nature of the adult relationship and break up? Are you simply using the PR issue as a bargaining chip? Can you really put forward a child-centred reason for refusing PR? There aren’t very many.
I feel there is an argument where parental responsibilty could be taken away. The only time it gets taken away is if a child has been put up for adoption, in no other circumstance can it be removed. If a parent is proven to have sexually/physically or metnally abuse a child they can still recieve school reports , they can stop the other parent from taking the child on holidays abroad.
This law can also put those at risk from abusive partners/ and those convicted of a serious crime ie murder/rape can still cause all sorts of problems for the other parent i also feel that the above are such severe acts of crime that the only influence someone like this can have on a child is a negative one.
I feel as a man this is a great law that needs to be tweaked and yes i agree if a man is proven to be the father he should have PR whether married or not but i also feel if the father has been convicted of a serious crime that requires them to serve a life sentence or that they have abused the child then this should mean that right should be removed.
I agree with all of the above, but please keep in mind, this is an equal rights world (well its meant to be). Therefore, mothers could also commit serious crimes and they automatically get PR, so why should fathers have to fight for it? Not all mothers are good.
Hi…
I am 21 with a 2 year old son. my sons father has been served a life sentence with an 18month on top for use of a weapon during the crime he committed, i have read some of the previous comments and feel incredibly strong about the effects of my two year old son learning who his father is and what he has done.I left my ex at five months pregnant after bouts of verbal/mental/ occassional physical abuse and found out he'd started down the slippery road of addiction to crack cocain and strived to make him take on responsibility for his son by making him put his name on the birth cert, and also taking him to drugs counselling, however this did not help and as his addiction escellated, so did his abusive comments/actions which led to some stalking, endless threats of injury violence and/or death of both my son and I, after repeatedly asking police to help and took 6 months and various threats for the to place a residency order on my son to prevent my ex from harrassing us, this ran out and we heard nothing for approx a year, then had a visit from CID who claimed they were searching for my ex partner in relation to a very serious offence, they informed me that they thought my ex and i were still together and living together and stated that the only reason the conection had been made between my son, myself and my ex was down to my insistance of my ex's name being put on the birth cert (how stupid did i feel?) now, i have suffered with depression and anxiety for a number of years and have strived to improve my management of personal issues both before and after my son was born on 2009, and have also gone back to college to study A level Law, Psychology and Sociology, in an aim to improve my education and job prospects,to provide a strong educational ethos for my son and to hopefully get us in a better financial/living position in the future. I have worked hard to do this as a single parent and wish for no sympathy about how hard things may or may not have been, however i find it absolutely outrageous and sickening to think that IF my ex gets out of prison after he's served his minimum term, he could technically reserve full parental rights and be able access my son whenever he likes, this is a terrifying thaught, and i dread to think that my son will grow up as a happy normal little boy and then have his world crushed by his fathers influence. this man has over 30 previous convictions for an array of offences including theft, burgelary, armed burgalry arsen, damage of property, assault, fraud, various traffic offences to name a few, and his most recent (mid 2010) for which he was given a life sentence, rape, theft, use of an unlawful weapon and some other smaller charges. I have difficulty finding anyone of the opinion that he should obtain his rights to influence or be involved in my sons life, is there anything legally that i can do to give us the security we need to continue to build or future without the threat of so called 'human/parental rights' blowing all of my efforts out of the water, what about the rights of my son and i? should my son really have to deal with the concept that he may be forced to visit a man that he has (practically) never known, when the time finally comes? is it acceptable that as a single mother fighting to regain control of what can sometimes be crippling anxiety attacks, that i should be expected to walk on egg shells wondering whether we will recieve more letters claiming that my ex wants to see us or give money or have photos, or even having to wait for another policeman knocking on my door to say he'ss done something else etc… our world at the min is hanging by a thread and the big black cloud hanging over our heads on a daily basis,is full of the negetivity that has been caused by my ex's actions throughout the past 5 years please, please tell me how to secure our future without him in the picture.