Okay- it has been a decade since the Children's Act has been adopted here in South Africa and still we have parents who want to fight for "custody" over their children.
I guess this is what we get for taking legal advice from American television or that "Oom" or "Tannie" at the family gatherings.
The fact is- we do not have a thing such as "custody" over children in our law.
Does that surprise you?
Well- here is another one for you. No one, except for the child, has anything to gain or lose from Family Advocate investigations or Children's Court Proceedings.
That is because the only thing the Children's Court or the Family Advocate is interested in finding out is what is in the child's best interests. If you want an idea of how they know what to look at these extracts from Section 7 of the Children's Act ought to give you an idea...
That is the reason why I do not fight about children to begin with.
If no agreement can be reached between the parents about contact with the children, where the children are to live or any other aspect of their care the Family Advocate has to be requested at the earliest possible time to investigate the matter so that I can have a recommendation as soon as possible. It does take months, but gives much better results than barking at the other party's attorney for months on end.
While the Family Advocate is attending to the children's situation we can then focus on the assets, liabilities and maintenance.
In our law parenthood is also virtually a lifelong commitment. Even when a parent is divorced he/ she has full rights and responsibilities of a parent, whether the child lives with him/ her or not. This is important for the primary caregiver- that is the parent with whom the child is staying- to remember, because just disappearing with a child so that the other parent does not know where the child is is actually a criminal offence. That means you can end up getting arrested and prosecuted.
A divorce court (During divorce Proceedings), a Children's Court and the High Court are the only institutions that can terminate any person's parenthood. A simple desire to stop being a parent or to stop someone else from being one is not enough, though.
A lot of people have already learnt that it is much better to rather have an agreement regarding the child's care and contact with parents than engaging in a costly battle from which neither parent has anything to gain.
I, for one, hope to see the end of such disputes soon, because this is definitely not the right country in which to have such disputes.
I guess this is what we get for taking legal advice from American television or that "Oom" or "Tannie" at the family gatherings.
The fact is- we do not have a thing such as "custody" over children in our law.
Does that surprise you?
Well- here is another one for you. No one, except for the child, has anything to gain or lose from Family Advocate investigations or Children's Court Proceedings.
That is because the only thing the Children's Court or the Family Advocate is interested in finding out is what is in the child's best interests. If you want an idea of how they know what to look at these extracts from Section 7 of the Children's Act ought to give you an idea...
If no agreement can be reached between the parents about contact with the children, where the children are to live or any other aspect of their care the Family Advocate has to be requested at the earliest possible time to investigate the matter so that I can have a recommendation as soon as possible. It does take months, but gives much better results than barking at the other party's attorney for months on end.
While the Family Advocate is attending to the children's situation we can then focus on the assets, liabilities and maintenance.
In our law parenthood is also virtually a lifelong commitment. Even when a parent is divorced he/ she has full rights and responsibilities of a parent, whether the child lives with him/ her or not. This is important for the primary caregiver- that is the parent with whom the child is staying- to remember, because just disappearing with a child so that the other parent does not know where the child is is actually a criminal offence. That means you can end up getting arrested and prosecuted.
A divorce court (During divorce Proceedings), a Children's Court and the High Court are the only institutions that can terminate any person's parenthood. A simple desire to stop being a parent or to stop someone else from being one is not enough, though.
A lot of people have already learnt that it is much better to rather have an agreement regarding the child's care and contact with parents than engaging in a costly battle from which neither parent has anything to gain.
I, for one, hope to see the end of such disputes soon, because this is definitely not the right country in which to have such disputes.
No comments:
Post a Comment