A recent study that looked at divorced dads across the United States showed that fathers in Illinois don’t spend as much time with their children as dads in other parts of the country. This is because dads in Illinois often don’t receive child custody awards that give them very much time with their kids. According to the study, Illinois kids spend only 23.1 percent of their time with their fathers. This ranks Illinois 47th in terms of how much time children spend with their fathers compared to other states.
The national trend involves family law courts awarding more dad-time to children during child custody proceedings. In fact, 25 states were reviewing child custody laws last year to support shared parenting time as the default. Furthermore, approximately 40 percent of U.S. states want to structure child custody awards to offer fifty-fifty parenting time structures to separated parents.
According to a communications professor from Illinois State University, it doesn’t surprise him “that dads got less time (in Illinois). The dads who I interviewed in my research, often that was their biggest complaints.” According to other experts, they believe the situation is improving with time. However, they concede that the traditional view of Illinois family law courts is that moms make better parents — even though this isn’t actually true.
If you’re an Illinois father and you want to spend more time with your children, the best time to stand up for your parent and custody rights is during your child custody and divorce proceedings. Stand up for your legal rights, express what you want the right way, and you just might get the extra time with your children that you desperately desire.
Source: Chicago Tribune, “Illinois divorced dads have among least amount of time spent with kids, study says,” Vikki Ortiz, June 06, 2018
