What Is the Fathers’ Rights Movement?

There was a time when society and courts automatically handed over child custody and essentially total control of raising a divorced couples’ children to the mother. For a long time that was the standard without question, but it is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Fathers who were taught their place was being a periodic guest in their children’s lives every other weekend have realized they are entitled to more of a role in rearing their kids.

What became the accepted norm for decades has begun to shift right alongside shifting societal norms. Women are no longer just stay-at-home wives and mothers any more than men are part-time dads. Men want true change and to be recognized as equally important in their children’s lives, and the fathers’ rights movement is here to argue their case.

What do fathers’ rights groups do?

When it comes to what’s in the best interest of a child, the courts are supposed to consider both parents as integral to raising happy, healthy children. Unfortunately, something called the tender years doctrine, which essentially states that very young children are better off raised by their mothers, all but made fathers feel obsolete outside of paying child support. Because of the unfair bias dads have received over the years with regard to their parenting abilities, groups began to form advocating for changes in how  men are treated during divorce or child custody cases of unmarried parents.

Fathers’ rights organizations are designed to make men aware of their rights as a parent in addition to working toward legislative changes. After all, if you don’t know what you’re entitled to you can’t fight to protect it. Being allowed to see your child more often, or even obtaining primary custody is no longer a pipe dream when you retain the right legal representation.

Not every group has the same agenda

Finding the right fathers’ rights group can be empowering to men who want equal rights as a parent. However, be aware that there is a difference between legitimate organizations run by legal advocates who want to effect change, and groups organized by inexperienced individuals who do their followers a disservice. Private groups such as many you find on social media tend to serve as vehicles for disseminating misinformation because they don’t feel the law is fair.

Some of these questionable groups even suggest taking actions that may be illegal. Acting on bad legal advice out of desperation to see your children may not only hinder your custody and visitation case, but can land you in criminal court. This is why you need an experienced family law attorney who focuses on advocating for fathers.

What a child custody attorney can do for dads

A good child custody attorney has seen it all when it comes to the reasons presented for limiting a dad’s presence or authority in his child’s life. Experience in a wide variety of situations means being able to create a strategy designed to combat allegations that paint you as a lesser parent.

Removing you from your children’s lives diminishes your importance and lends the opportunity for toxic mothers to alienate your children from you for years to come. Some co-parents interfere with the father/child bond by:

• Regularly withholding kids from visitation by making excuses like they’re sick, they don’t want to go, or your child support is late.
• Failing to encourage children who need to rebuild their relationship with you to see or speak to you.
• Monitoring or interfering with phone calls or video chats.
• Cutting off electronic devices to make communication with you difficult.
• Making false allegations of abuse and coaching children to go along with it.
• Moving to another area to make it harder to see your kids.

When you want to be a parent to your child but you’ve been systematically eliminated from his or her life, you need help showing the court that you deserve to have that right enforced. Call the dedicated child custody attorneys at the Law Offices of Adrian H. Altshuler & Associates at 615-977-9370 to schedule your free case evaluation today, or feel free to reach out to us through our contact form to tell us your story. We have offices in Franklin, Columbia, and Brentwood for the convenience of our clients across Tennessee.