Sharing Mum and Dad – Channel 4 Dispatches Documentary with Tim Lovejoy


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Dispatches the Channel 4 documentary programme aired a program on 14th January 2013 titled “Sharing Mum and Dad”.

Tim Lovejoy was a fantastic presenter on the documentary and for me it clearly displayed that 50/50 shared parenting is easily workable, but the grim reality for thousands of fathers in the UK is that it will currently only happen (in most cases) if the mother allows it.

Some sobering statistics from the documentary are:

  • 80% of fathers make applications to court
  • 15,000 children use contact centres
  • 90% of 1,000 people polled said “Yes” to changes being needed in family law
  • 86% of those polled said the law favoured women

The programme gave views from both sides of the argument and for me the clear problem is people with influential power such as Baroness Butler-Sloss. She says that there is no bias in the courts and family law system but then in the programme went on to say that it is “because the child lives and goes to school in one home” and “the child has to live in one place”.

These are outdated views and are damaging the lives of tens of thousands of children and the lives of many thousands of non-resident parents.

We need more programmes like the Dispatches documentary which highlights that many children are benefiting from parents that agree to share 50/50 responsibility and the current laws are allowing angry, bitter parents to alienate children from their fathers and judges are doing nothing to stop it.

Keep the debate live here and by tweeting #sharingmumdad

You can see the Dispatches program at http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/articles/sharing-mum-and-dad-send-your-stories#comments-top

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