Blog
Rayner my parade! The importance of specialist advice.
Jemma Brimblecombe
14 December 2012
Keeping the peace at Christmas – top tips for shared parenting over the festive season
For separated or divorced families, Christmas time is often an emotionally charged time of year, fraught with practical challenges as parents try to agree contact time and arrangements for Christmas events. Claire Wood shares some tips on how best to prepare for the issues which may arise at Christmas.
15 October 2012
Are both dual role super mothers and committed fathers short changed by our current social policies and divorce laws?
Over the last 20 years, we have seen a greater tendency for women to enter into the higher occupational sphere and according to recent reports, many of these women feel that our current divorce laws, whilst evolving, do not reflect the fact that they are both homemaker and breadwinner while their spouses do not have to worry about household management as well as their careers.
9 October 2012
The Grandparent Boom
Did National Grandparents’ Day pass you by last Sunday? Perhaps the greetings card companies haven’t yet cottoned on. Or perhaps they did and realised it wasn’t such a money spinner; perhaps it is a sign of something more, a sign that grandparents are simply not as publicly appreciated as mothers/fathers. If we believe the stereotype, then grandparents provide their families with a good dose of sound advice, regular presents, baked goods and a steady supply of Werther’s Originals. However, as more parents go out to work, grandparents are increasingly being relied upon for something more - free childcare.
5 October 2012
Child Maintenance: Out with the old, in with the...?
The Government plans to introduce a new system for dealing with child maintenance in England and Wales, by gradually winding down the much criticised Child Support Agency and replacing it, from December, with the Child Maintenance Service (CMS). Under the new regime, parents will be encouraged to agree proposals for maintenance themselves, and guidance will be provided by the CMS in how to achieve this. The proposals can perhaps be viewed with scepticism as, arguably, parents who are able to agree levels of child maintenance will not necessarily need to use the CMS.
4 October 2012
Discrimination gone mad? A surrogate mother's plea
Whilst maternity pay and protection is not an issue for high profile women using surrogates to become mothers, such as Sarah Jessica Parker, it is a very real problem and issue for most average working women who are not Hollywood superstars. It was widely reported in the press last week that a mother who had a child using a surrogate is taking the Government to the High Court to win the right to receive maternity pay. She is claiming that her human rights are being breached by being denied the opportunity to take paid maternity leave to look after and bond with her son.