The intent of this Overview by Dr. Brooks McKenzie is to convey the immense importance of Early Childhood Experiences/Relationships (i.e., Attachment System), and how devastating it can be to a child to be denied such experiences. Recent legislation has been introduced that appears to promote healthier outcomes for
children in custody battles (minimally ameliorating a fraction of t he damage currently done to our children by the Family Courts), yet places inane restrictions on implementing these changes that would benefit children.
As follows are some of the areas that have nothing to do with healthy development
for a child, and will actually continue to inflict certain damage to most children via judicial
discretion, and likely increase litigation and conflict in Family Courts:
1) Mileage Restrictions:
a. Will be abused in early proceedings to nullify access to both parents
(primary parent will simply move outside of this distance), and;
b. There has never been any credible evidence that these mileage limits have anything
to do with healthy Child Development; the science definitively shows that it will damage children.
2) Age Restrictions:
a. As noted across decades of research, the most important formative
years for Healthy Attachment in a child are from 6 months – 36
months. The idea that a child is restricted from seeing either parent
until age 3 is a direct attack on the healthy development of a child;
this has absolutely and consistently been proven across decades of
empirical research. Any other claim is simply a lie from interests who
seek to benefit from an already dysfunctional system.
b. The first 3 years of life set the trajectory for most individuals across a
life-span. This is a mechanism that (a) will be abused by attorneys and
litigants and (b) is proven to damage a children definitively.
3) Constitutional Issues:
a. Many of the determining factors listed for Equal Parenting to be
‘granted’ (e.g., mileage, age, jobs/work hours, etc.) appear to be in
direct violation of constitutionally protected choices. If true, such
restrictions will surely ignite years of litigation against the State.
b. And the insanity of the illegal Restraining Orders/Protective Orders is about to get slapped down by SCOTX and we can hold them all accountable. Check out the Stary v. Etheridge case that is about to send a bunch of legal actors running for retirement.
4) Judicial Discretion
a. Currently, Family Court judges routinely abuse their discretion and
simply ignore current laws and our Constitution.
b. Without removing judicial discretion from all but t he most rare of
cases, these bills will do little to end the ongoing damage to children
by our Texas Family Courts (actually meets the definite ion of Child
Abuse).
When scumbag attorneys are the sole voice of what the courts need, it is like Planned Parenthood advising on how to birth children, they simply don’t care. Texas Family Courts are to the child what Planned Parenthood is to the unborn.
