Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Custody battles

In my book What Happened to Goodbye By Sarah Dessen, the main character, Mclean's parents are divorced. They went through a bad split where her mom left her dad for the coach of the Defriese basketball team, which happened to be their favorite team. Mclean resents her mom after leaving her dad, so she chooses to stay with her him after the split. When her mom remarries and has two more kids, Mclean pretty much wants nothing to do with her. Her mom always tries to get her to come spend time with her, but she always refuses. At one point in the book her mom is trying so hard to get her to see her that she wants to take her father to court. Mclean doesn't want to deal with court cases so she agrees to certain times she'll go visit her mom.







In my opinion, it's Mclean's choice whether she wants to see her mom or not. I know it's just a book but her mom can't force her to come see her. If she doesn't want to she shouldn't have to. In most cases, divorced parents sometimes take each other to court and fight for custody of their children. But why don't the kids ever get any say on who they want to live with? Thats why in the book Mclean's mom bothers me, she doesn't realize that Mclean just doesn't want to live with her and she wants to live with her dad. My parents got divorced when I was little, no custody battles happened, my sister and I just chose to live with my mom and went to visit my dad whenever we wanted to.

What do you think? Do you think kids should have the right to choose which parent they want to live with without any of the court drama?

3 comments:

  1. Hi, I'm Michelle from Fremd!I read this book last summer and I loved it. I am a big fan of Sarah Dessen books, and this is one of my favorites.I agree that it should really be up to the children because they are very affected by the divorce. I think parents should just recognized what their children want is most likely what is best for them. Nice post!

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  2. Hey, I'm Allison from Fremd! I haven't read this book by Sarah Dessen yet but I have read so many by her that I know that I love her books. I definitely think that parents should ask the kids what they want. If the kids don't want to see a parent then they shouldn't have to. Nice post!

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  3. Hi, I'm Jacquelyn from Fremd! I read this book for my April book blog. I liked it a lot but I definitely agree with you about kids being able to choose who they see. My parents are divorced and are currently fighting over custody and I know that all my sister and I want is to be able to say what we want and we aren't given that chance. It's definitely frustrating and I agree that the kids should just be able to make the decision. Nice post :)

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