Damaging our children through dysfunctional divorce

TORONTO, Oct. 9, 2014 /CNW/ - Wanting huge amounts of support, using children as pawns, public shaming, divorce pranks, playing games with child access, and parental alienation syndrome are some of the behaviours that harm children more and more the longer a divorce drags on.

Children suffer a range of dysfunctional behaviours including aggressiveness, fighting, hostility, anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, loneliness, and self-esteem issues says family law lawyer Andrew Feldstein.

"The divorce of their parents is always horrible for children to go through," he says and that's prompted him to release In the Best Interests of The Children, Edition Two, of a series of white papers with a three-fold objective:  to speed up divorce, to reduce court bureaucracy, and to lower costs of divorce.

"To children, the unnecessary time it takes to cope with the system today takes up a major portion of their life. A year in the life of a 5-year-old seems like forever. Two years of watching parents wrangle seems never-ending to a 7-year-old who becomes a 9-year-old," Mr. Feldstein says.

In the Best Interests of The Children is being sent to all members of the House of Commons, to the Parliamentary Press Gallery, to all MPPs and other politicians, public servants and journalists across Canada. In the Best Interests of The Children is available to everyone at www.ItsTimeForJustice.ca

"What we are trying to do In The Best Interests of the Children is move thinking and planning of changes to the divorce process to the top of the agenda," Mr. Feldstein says, "prompting politicians to change the rules surrounding divorce so that children will benefit. No government is going to shower millions of dollars on divorce to build bigger court houses and hire more judges. The best way to make divorce faster is to modernize the rules and processes."

The Divorce Act is federal, so the Members of Parliament in the House of Commons are the politicians who can make the biggest changes. The Children's Law Reform Act and the Family Law Act are provincial and govern non-married parties with children, with MPPs responsible for both.

PDF available at: http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2014/10/09/20141009_C3253_PDF_EN_6256.pdf

SOURCE: Feldstein Family Law Group

Andrew Feldstein, Managing Partner, Feldstein Family Law Group, Office [phone] ext. 255, [email protected]; Media Contact: Jana Schilder, Managing Partner, First Principles Communication, Mobile [phone], [email protected]