Children of mom and dad

An Update on the DSM-V Campaign

2010-10-17T00:05:00.029-04:00

Even with the counter-campaign against it declared by the National Organization for Women (NOW), the campaign started by Fathers & Families to support the inclusion of Parental Alienation in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) has been greatly successful. The DSM, considered the diagnostic "bible" of the American Psychiatric Association's, is

Parenting and Self-Esteem

2010-10-03T15:19:00.000-04:00

We've all heard, at times with some incredulity, that women like bad men, that the surest way to lose a woman is to be kind to her, that if a man is too good, sooner or later your partner I leave it for a son of a ... Before discarding the idea as popular nonsense, please refer to a study titled “The supermom trap: Do involved dads erode moms' self-competence?”. This study, conducted by Osaka

Germany and Children’s Right to Have a Father

2010-08-08T17:49:00.000-04:00

I have said many times that our struggle is not a speed race that will be won in a sudden blow, but a marathon that will be won with endurance and patience. I have said also that our struggle has to be counted as the sum of many battles that have been won before and that are being won right now. I have to add now that there are no small battles, that there are no negligible victories. A man

Catalonia’s New Civil Code and Joint Custody

2010-07-18T14:21:00.001-04:00

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The Face of Melancholy

2010-07-11T17:05:00.001-04:00

Support in Unexpected Places: Gloria Steinem in The Colbert Report

2010-07-04T01:02:00.001-04:00

I must confess that I am huge fan of Comedy Central, the cable channel dedicated exclusively to comedy shows. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, with my neighbor from Montclair Stephen Colbert, are my “must see TV.” Last June 22nd, Stephen interviewed Gloria Steinem (March 25, 1934), the icon of American feminism. Steinem, journalist, social and political activist, was a

America Again Bows Out of UN Rights of the Child Convention

2010-06-27T08:50:00.004-04:00

In 1989, the United Nation's Rights of the Child Convention was drafted, and it was put into effect in 1990. Although the United States, then under the Reagan Administration, was instrumental in drafting the articles in the treaty, America never signed it, along with only one other country to date--Somalia. The intention of the treaty was to establish guidelines for basic children's rights.

To My Father

2010-06-20T00:03:00.015-04:00

Today is Father’s Day. And since it is Father’s Day I should say that, counter to what the mass media and the most extreme elements of radical feminism want to make us believe, people need fathers (and I say this with pride: people need us fathers). Mine, don Vidal Guzmán Hernández, was a Puerto Rican peasant, or “jíbaro” as we say, who in his young years worked in agriculture, cutting sugar

What Do Children Want?

2010-06-07T19:22:00.000-04:00

In his article titled “Australian Study Asks Children Their Ideas About Custody”, Robert Franklin, one of the regular collaborators of the Fathers & Families website, reviews a study done by Dr. Alan Campbell of the University of South Australia (Child Care in Practice, 7/1/08). Dr. Campbell and his team interviewed a group of Australian children between the ages of 7 and 17, all of them

2010: The Fresh Air Fund's Summer

2010-05-30T00:01:00.005-04:00

The Countdown to Summer 2010 is on and The Fresh Air Fund is in need of host families. If you or someone you know is able to host, please sign up now. In 2009, The Fresh Air Fund's Volunteer Host Family program, called Friendly Town, gave close to 5,000 New York City boys and girls, ages six to 18, free summer experiences in the country and the suburbs. Volunteer host families shared their

Gender Violence: The Case of Daniel Malakov

2010-04-11T21:41:00.003-04:00

Last week I wrote about Miguel Ángel Salgado Pimentel, murdered the same day he won custody of his daughter. Miguel Ángel, sad is to say, has many brothers around the world. Brothers like Daniel Malakov.Daniel, born in the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan, thirty-four years old, Ivy League-trained orthodontist, lived in Queens, New York.Daniel, after a nasty divorce from the woman he was

Gender Violence: The Case of Miguel Ángel Salgado Pimentel

2010-04-05T00:30:00.005-04:00

Maybe because the media has the bad habit of informing us of what is irrelevant and of keeping silence regarding what is relevant, I knew about the case of Miguel Angel Salgado Pimentel just recently, when the day on which his death is remembered was already over. I want, anyway, to remember him today.Miguel Angel married the attorney Maria Dolores Martín Pozo in 1998 and the couple had a

The Impact of Domestic Violence on Children

2010-03-21T09:04:00.003-04:00

The advantage of having a wide circle of friends is that you’re exposed to a variety of experiences, and that is how I found myself watching a little-known foreign language film that dealt with the subject of rivalry between two schoolboys, with the stories of their families also weaved into the screenplay. It was heart-warming to say the least, because it was a no-nonsense, no-frills movie that

The Langeac Declaration (2 of 2)

2010-03-14T00:03:00.003-05:00

Last week I wrote about Declaration of Langeac. I consider it an important step towards an unified declaration of principles of our movement, towards an universal synthesis. Following is the full text of the Declaration: Declaration of LangeacPrinciples:1. Fathers and mothers should be accorded equal status in a child’s life, and consequently should have equal rights and equal responsibilities.2

The Langeac Declaration (1 of 2)

2010-03-07T19:59:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, doing my research for this blog, I found the Declaration of Langeac.In June 1999, in Langeac, a small town located in the South of France, fifteen individuals from seven different countries (Spain, Ireland, Chile, Germany, Holland, the United Kingdom, and France) met to discuss the state of children and family rights. The result of this meeting was the Langeac

The Parental Alienation Syndrome and the DSM-5 (2 of 2)

2010-02-28T15:49:00.004-05:00

The DSM is an exhaustive bible used by psychiatrists, psychologists, family practitioners and other health professionals, to classify mental disorders. Now that its publishers are working on its fifth edition, or DSM-V, there is a movement to include Parental Alienation in it, a movement that includes among its members hundreds of mental health professionals, doctors, educators, family law

The Parental Alienation Syndrome and the DSM-5 (1 of 2)

2010-02-21T19:32:00.007-05:00

Fathers & Families, the pro-shared parenting organization, is leading a campaign to include Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) in the fifth edition of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” or DSM-5 (Campaign: Ask DSM to Include Parental Alienation in Upcoming Edition). Before inviting my readers to join the campaign, I would like stop and give a brief explanation of what

The Fresh Air Fund

2010-02-08T00:02:00.003-05:00

Last week, I received an e-mail from Sara Wilson of The Fresh Air Fund, regarding their Host Family Program for 2010. Since the main goal of this blog is precisely the welfare of our children, and The Fresh Air Fund is an organization that actively looks for the same goal, this week I am reproducing most of the message sent by Sara:"In 2009, The Fresh Air Fund's Volunteer Host Family program,

Grandparents and Joint Custody

2010-01-24T21:34:00.002-05:00

Recently I received news from Spain (“Los abuelos por la custodia compartida piden a la UE poder ver a sus nietos”) that reminded me of one of the many faces of the tragedy lived by many families after divorce.Representatives of the Grandfathers and Grandmothers pro Joint Custody Association (ASACCO) of Catalonia will meet in Brussels with members of the directive board of the European Commission

Cathy Young and the Gender War

2010-01-17T21:54:00.003-05:00

Cathy Young (Moscow 1963), an author, a public speaker, and a regular columnist for The Boston Globe and Reason, her articles have also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday, The American Spectator, Salon.Com, National Review, and The New Republic. She published in 1999 the book Ceasefire! Why Women and Men Must Join

The Biological Necessity of Having a Father

2010-01-03T17:19:00.002-05:00

On the webpage of the British magazine New Scientist, Linda Geddes wrote an article ironically titled “Fathers aren't dispensable just yet”, on which comments on recent research done on the biological implications of fatherhood. This research shows biochemical evidence in mice and people that suggests that fathers may play a key role in the rearing of offspring.Several studies have already

A Personal Note on Child Custody and Violence

2009-12-27T16:54:00.001-05:00

After I got a satisfactory parenting schedule a few months ago, the new arrangement had a surprising side effect: the dialogue between my daughter’s mother and me has improved, a lot. Having solved what was our most important divide has relieved our relationship from what was its biggest stress generator. After the anger and frustration faded away, we have started to talk about parents are

Receipt Acknowledgement: On domestic Violence

2009-12-27T16:45:00.003-05:00

I have been writing lately about domestic violence, and how the way courts deal with this issue is strongly connected to the way courts deal with father’s custody rights. Recently one of my readers, Suzane Smith, sent me an article written by her titled “10 Myths about Domestic Violence”. I encourage my readers to read this article. In her post, Smith does a great job clarifying the main

The Neurological Consequences of Fatherlessness

2009-12-20T20:05:00.001-05:00

Recent scientific studies could bring light on the harmful biological effects of fatherlessness (Shirley S. Wang, “This Is Your Brain Without Dad”, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704754804574491811861197926.html). German biologist Anna Katharina Braun, director of the Institute of Biology at Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg, is doing research on biparental animals (animals

On “Divorced from Reality” by Baskerville (2 of 2)

2009-12-13T23:24:00.003-05:00

This is the second and final article on Stephen Baskerville, “Divorced from Reality”.Baskerville believes that the child abuse “epidemic” is almost entirely the creation of radical feminism and the welfare bureaucracies. He quotes evidence that proves that an intact family is the safest place for women and children, and that very little abuse takes place in married families. Child abuse and