Bestselling write and child psychologist Penelope Leach has spoken out against young children having overnight stays away from home. She argues that it is emotionally and developmentally damaging for children under the age of 5 who are cared for by their mother most of time to be uprooted from their normal home to go and spend a night or two regularly with their father and that the Family Court should stop making Child Arrangements Orders for this to happen.
Not everyone agrees. There are a number of experts who disagree with her here.
Leach’s views are entirely out of kilter with the Family Court which nowadays views children staying overnight with their fathers to be normal for pretty much all children, save for perhaps the very, very young. My view is that once a child is a toddler, he or she should be able to cope with staying overnight with Dad. The speed at which this progresses varies from case to case, depending upon the circumstances.
I wouldn’t expect much enthusiasm for Leach’s opinions amongst the judiciary who tend to adopt a no nonsense approach to these issues. I suspect they will feel that adopting Leach’s position will be a massive step backwards and that all that her comments will do is encourage those mothers whom are difficult about allowing father to spend time with children to be even less child focussed. What causes children to suffer emotional harm is witnessing parents who aren’t able to put their own feelings before the needs of their children and who cannot work together in their children’s best interests. Those parents need to learn to work together and wherever possible should try to use mediation to reach an agreement, or attend a Separated Parents Information Programme to help them learn how to work together.
21 June 2014