Custody cases must leave children whole

Families are rarely perfect, but imagine the scene at your dead son’s funeral when his ex-wife says she is taking back the girls that you have cared for and raised during the past 12 years. It just makes a person cringe.

Maybe mom wasn’t there as much as she could have been. Maybe she got behind on child support. Maybe she did the best she could with the time she had with her girls. Maybe she had issues in her life that she needed to work through so she could get to a better place. Maybe she felt hostility and alienation.

Maybe grandma got in trouble with the law for financial dealings with an elderly person in her care. Maybe she was there when the girls were miserably sick through the long night. Maybe she fought an expensive legal fight for custody of the granddaughters she loved.

Not a perfect family. No one is without some flaw.

But the well-being of the girls is the main thing, even to these legal combatants. Their actions make it clear that both parent and grandparents care deeply about the girls, even if their opponent in court would strongly object to that idea.

Illinois law always favors the biological parent, and maybe with good reason. Grandparent visitation rights are pretty well defined, but custody rights are less defined except for some extreme circumstances.

Few things are as tough as family court, and that is why Solomon’s resolution of a child custody case is a story of biblical proportions.

This story was originally published August 11, 2016 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Custody cases must leave children whole."