If divorce isn't stressful enough among couples, when children are involved, it adds a whole other level of stress and emotions to the mix. Parents often lose sight of what is in their children's best interests. Where do children fit into this whole new life that is being created? Unfortunately, children often become financial pawns in a divorce when child custody issues are being decided. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayWhen dealing with child custody, there are four different types. The first type is legal custody where the parent has the right to make decisions about the child's education, the second type is physical custody where the parent has the right to have the child live with him, the third type is l Sole custody in which one parent has both legal and physical custody of the child and, in the case of fourth and final joint custody, both parents will share legal custody, physical custody, or both. If for any reason circumstances arise where one parent is unable to care for the child, custody may be given to a grandparent or other relative. The parent who unfortunately has not been awarded physical custody of the child or children may be entitled to visitation rights, which ultimately rests solely on the courts. The three types of visitation rights include: Reasonable visitation, which is a form of child visitation that includes reasonable times and places as determined by both parents. Another is fixed visitation, the court orders times and places for children to visit. Finally, supervised visitation is the last one that stipulates that an adult supervisor must be present during the visitation (Einstein Law Inc, 2002, par.5). Child custody laws vary from state to state. There are many websites on the Internet where you can find out what the child custody laws are based on the state in which you live. http://www.divorcehq.com/index.html is a good website that offers a lot of quality and diverse information, everything from child support to child custody to children's rights, it also has a section on visitation along with a calculator tool that will help calculate how much child support might cost. It offers so much more information that is worth checking out. With each passing year the divorce rate is increasing at an astonishing rate. For example, in 2003 there were 3.8 divorces per 1000 people in the United States. The "raw" divorce rate is calculated on the basis of the number of divorces per 1000 inhabitants. This provides a better measure of the divorce rate because it allows us to compare the rate over time and across the country while taking into account population size (number of people). However, there will never be an accurate divorce rate because this number presents a problem in that it uses the entire population (including children) in its calculation, some of whom cannot divorce. Furthermore, because in different communities and at different times in history there may have been more or fewer children in the population, this number may misrepresent the divorce rate (Hughes Jr., 2005, para. 3). Nearly 50% of children grow up in a single-parent environment. Children need their parents to be able to develop physically, mentally and emotionally. If the bond between parent and child is broken, negative consequences can result which can be traumatic for the child (Divorce Source Inc, 2005, para.1). Because when a married couple decides to have a child and raises the child together, those in court,in the middle of a divorce trial will the judge decide to side with the mother over the father when it comes to a custody battle? Like everything else, it all comes back to stereotypes and what society deems "right." Men's rights are limited by judicial opinions that women are the primary custodians of children, opinions that are expressed in the presumption that women should have custody of children in the event of divorce. Therefore, it is difficult for a father to gain custody of the children even when he could be the better parent or be in a better situation to raise the children. Women now more than ever are trying to defeat thoughts and presumptions about what and who they should be, but why has this been left alone and unchanged (Wood, 2005, p29)? "For example, a Stanford study of 1,000 randomly selected divorced couples found that divorced mothers were awarded sole custody four times more often than divorced fathers in contested custody cases. A study of all divorce custody decrees in Arlington County, Virginia, during an 18-month period found that no father was awarded sole or even joint custody unless the mother agreed, according to Frank Bishop, former director of the Virginia Division of Child Support Enforcement, nearly 95% of custody cases in Virginia were won by mothers (Thompson, 2002, p45).” This is not something that happens only in the United States but all over the world. All a father wants to do is be a part of his child's life, but most of the time the mother wants to hurt the father and her way of doing so takes away the father's right to deal with his children. He ends up putting all the control in his hands. The father ends up at the mercy of the mother and the courts. When will fathers finally stand up together and say this is enough and begin to end the separation and custody laws that are being levied against them? The best thing to do is to work everything out between them calmly, like adults, so that there is no reason to take it to court and have more stress about the whole divorce than there should be. In Britain, fathers are finally starting to get fed up with the system that favors mothers during a custody battle. In 2004 a group was formed in Great Britain that finally fought for father's rights and the authorities began to listen. In July 2004, Blair's government published a document recommending several reforms, from more government-sponsored mediation before divorces come to court to speeding up proceedings once they have occurred. It also proposes sanctions for parents who flout court rulings. The punishments – ranging from community service to compensation payments – would be less harmful to the child and would allow judges to be more impartial (some say less sexist) in their sentences (Foroohar, 2004, p31). there will be more fathers willing to stand together and fight for fathers' rights around the world, then maybe one day the courts will no longer side with mothers but will feel what would be best for the children and rule based on that rather than simply give custody to the mother. What is surprising is that in the 19th century, in almost all cases the custody of children was entrusted to the father. Once again, due to stereotypes and "how it should be", children were seen as the father's "property" because most mothers could not afford to care for the children. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, children's aid societies, offices of.