LONDON – Intelligent parents are more at risk of using their children as “ammunition” and a “battlefield” to carry on their disputes in a legal war after separation, England’s most senior family court judge has said.
Sir Nicholas Wall, president of the family division, said the arguments were rarely about the children themselves, and he accused divorcing parents of acting unreasonably and damaging their offspring in the process.
He called for the family justice system to be made less adversarial, but said this would be difficult because of parents’ behaviour.
“People think that post-separation parenting is easy – in fact, it is exceedingly difficult, and as a rule of thumb my experience is that the more intelligent the parent, the more intractable the dispute,” Sir Nicholas said.
“Why do we have these endless disputes? The judicial answer is, I think, quite clear. It is because separating parents who are unable to resolve issues between themselves rarely act reasonably.”
The parents did not realise the damage to children their battles caused. “Disputes over contact between absent parents and their former partners, married or otherwise, are rarely about the children concerned. Far more often, the parties are fighting over again the battles of the relationship, and the children are both the battlefield and the ammunition.” – (Reuters)