Georgia Mother and Father separate.

Mother reports Father for child abuse.

Mother’s allegations are determined to be unfounded.

Father is awarded sole custody of their two Children in divorce.

While she has visitation with the Children, Mother reportedly flees.

First to Texas, where she has relatives.

And again reports Father for child abuse.

Texas authorities decline to take Mother into custody despite knowing of arrest warrant.

Then, allegedly, to Mexico, where she is from.

Authorities are looking for Mother in connection with federal charges of international parental kidnapping and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution and state charges of felony interference with child custody.

If caught and convicted, Mother faces incarceration for up to five years.

Read more in this Jacksonville [FL] Times-Union article: Kids believed hidden in Mexico.

Today, mothers celebrate Mother’s Day with their children.

A foster mother and adoptive mother is among them.

While she is celebrating Mother’s Day, she also celebrates the selflessness of the birth mothers of her adopted children.

And she wishes those birth mothers a Happy Mother’s Day as well.

Read more in this Examiner editorial: Happy Mother’s Day to my children’s birthmoms and this Woonsocket Call article: There’s plenty of love to go around on Mother’s Day.

Some Nebraska legislators are working to change the state’s child custody laws.

Current law is couched in terms of the best interests of the children.

But some say that test leads to conflict … and the court unnecessarily inquiring into which parent is the better parent.

Advocates for changing the law contend that current law almost always translates into the mother being awarded primary custody in Nebraska.

Proposed legislation would presume that both parents are equally fit and presume that both parents should have equal decision-making and equal timesharing with their children.

That means that if one parent is not fit for equal timesharing, the burden is on the other parent to prove it, sometimes by clear and convincing evidence. Almost as tough as proving beyond a reasonable doubt, the state’s burden in criminal cases.

Proponents of the bill favor both parents being able to share their children.

The proposed legislation is not expected to pass anytime soon.

Although fathers’ rights groups tend to favor such legislation, advocates against domestic violence maintain that such laws too often place children in the custody of abusers.

This same battle is or has been fought in a number of other states.

Read more in this Nebraska TV article: State Child Custody Law: 50-50 Split?.

There’s an epidemic sweeping parts of Florida, maybe more. It’s not swine flu.

It’s domestic violence.

One of the areas in which it is most pervasive is Orange County, in central Florida. Ironically, Disney territory.

Not only poor areas. But also areas near the University of Central Florida.

The police, sheriff’s office, the Department of Children and Family Services and Harbor House, a shelter for victims of domestic violence, are joining forces to take aim at the problem.

Drop in centers to educate victims on their options are planned for domestic violence hotspots throughout the county, based on what is being called a “domestic abuse map”.

Mapped hotspots correspond to transient communities.

Last year, 5000 incidents of family violence were reported in Orange County.

As of the year 2000, the county’s population was under 900,000.

Shelters and related facilities in Orange County are already strained to capacity.

Read more in this Orlando Sentinel article: Domestic-abuse map points the way for help and the portal About’s Central Florida Statistics.

Woman alleges that North Carolina Man is father of her child and should pay child support.

Man is certain he is not the father and willingly submits to DNA paternity test.

Test results arrive in Man’s mail.

Cover letter concludes that Man is the father.

Man reads on …

Actual report of test results states that Man is not the father.

Man reports inconsistency to testing company.

Company maintains that this is an unusual clerical mistake, which would have been caught even if Man didn’t catch the error.

In any event, Woman’s case is dismissed and Man can go on with his life, free of years of child support obligations.

Moral: When it comes to legal proceedings, read everything … all the way through.

Read more in this Charlotte [NC] Observer article: Office error could have cost Garner man thousands in child support payments..

Will a spouse’s marriage last, or end in divorce?

Research psychologists from DePauw University think they can predict with some degree of accuracy.

It all depends on the spouse’s smile … when he or she was a child.

Specifically, the frequency and intensity of the smile in youth.

That’s right.

Smilers and, especially, big smilers, were considerably less likely to get divorced.

In the study, no participants in the top ten percent of smilers divorced.

In contrast, twenty-five percent of the least smiley had an unsuccessful marriage.

Statistically, the biggest smilers have only an eleven percent likelihood of divorcing.

The least smiley have a thirty-one percent chance of divorcing.

Why?

It’s not clear.

Smilers may simply be happier and attract happier people into their lives.

Or they accept bumps in the road more happily.

Or they have a larger support network to help them get through tough times.

Or there may be some other reason entirely.

Read more in this Money Times article: Childhood smile could predict your risk of divorce.

Deja vu.

A Maryland man working for the state’s child support enforcement agency collected more than just a paycheck.

He also had child support checks made out to his own wife … and deposited them into his account.

Over a seven year period.

The man pled guilty and was sentenced to 10 years’ incarceration and restitution of $49,000.

Read more in this Baltimore Sun article: Man admits stealing child-support checks.

Husband and Wife’s divorce trial was just a few days away.

But no one saw anything amiss.

There was no history of police reports of domestic violence at their home during their twenty-two year marriage.

But Wife alleged both physical and emotional abuse in her divorce filings.

Husband’s sister flew in from out of town to testify for him at the trial.

And when Husband and his two children were alone with hs sister, Husband allegedly shot and killed them all, including himself.

Husband’s parents and lawyer couldn’t believe he was capable of such acts.

Read more in this [Huntsville, AL] WHNT-TV article: Inside Look: Kevin and Tammy Garner’s Divorce Papers.

It works for grandparents and extended family members.

It also works for parents who, for whatever reason, are far away from where their kids are.

It’s virtual visitation via the internet.

Thanks to widespread high speed internet access, parents can do practically anything with their kids via web conferencing.

Look each other in the eye while talking. Play board games. Etc., etc.

It’s the next best thing to being there, in the flesh. And, in many ways, it negates the feeling of distance between parents and their kids.

Several states specifically provide for web-based visitation by statute.

Although some noncustodial parents argue it is used as a justification to deprive them of in-person access to their children, some custodial parents argue that it is so popular with the kids that it cuts into the custodial parents’ time with their kids.

Clearly, though, it well serves a valuable purpose in our mobile society, where relocation is a frequent issue.

It can also be useful in certain situations otherwise managed with supervised visitation.

Read more in this Toronto Metro News article: Virtually there – Cyberspace helps divorced parents keep in touch with kids.

Husband and Wife divorce.

Twenty-five years later, Wife approaches retirement.

Far-off-in-the-future social security benefits are not typically addressed in divorces, and many people are confused about or ignorant of their eventual entitlement.

Wife lets it be known that she is contemplating seeking to collect social security benefits by claiming through Husband.

Husband opposes.

But Wife can do this, even all these years later, even though this was not spelled out in Wife’s and Husband’s divorce.

Under federal law, a spouse who was married for at least ten years to someone who earned social security benefits, may claim social security benefits based on their former spouse’s rights – provided the claiming spouse did not remarry.

The claiming spouse’s benefits do not diminish the benefits that will be paid to the earning spouse.

Read more in this Philadelphia Daily News finance column: Harry Gross: His ex-wife can benefit from his SS.