A Family Divided: A Divorced Father's Struggle with the Child Custody Industry. - Review - book review

Adolescence, Summer, 1998

MENDELSON, Robert. A Family Divided: A Divorced Father's Struggle with the Child Custody Industry. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1997. 547pp. $27.95 (h).

More and more, politicians, religious leaders, and behavioral experts blame the increase in crime, drug abuse and teen pregnancy on the breakdown of the family. What these experts may not realize, however, is that the divorce industry fosters this collapse: the courts persist in viewing mothers as the only proper guardians--the primary parents--even in the overwhelming majority of cases that do not involve abusive husbands. Hence, fathers are eased--or shoved--out of their children's lives. In A Family Divided, Mendelson presents the divorced father's point of view, arguing that fathers are not superfluous and not all of them should be considered deadbeat dads who shirk their parental responsibilities. Moreover, public opinion, the press, and the courts are wrong to believe that men cannot be single parents; that a parental role can be fulfilled through sporadic weekend visits. Mendelson demonstrates that both society's and the children's best interests require two active and involved parents, even if they ma intain separate residences.