510
edits
Changes
→Language
===Language===
The words we use often shape how we see the world around us. There's a big difference, for example, between saying "Pat lied to me about ..." and saying "Pat was mistaken when he told me that...." In the same way, there's a difference between saying "Tuesday is my access day" and "Tuesday is when I have parenting time with Moesha."
Over the past ten years or so, the courts and policymakers have become increasingly sensitive to how the words used to describe a parent's involvement with their child can impact on both the child's and the parent's perception of their relationship. As a result, shared parenting — an arrangement in which the parents share their children's time equally or almost equally — is becoming increasingly commonplace, even in situations where, twenty years ago, Parent A would be described as the "access parent" and Parent B would be described as the "custodial parent." The phrase "access parent" can often lead to a sense, shared by everyone, including the children, that this parent is somehow a lesser parent, has less of a role to play, or is less important to their child's life. It also encourages the idea that there are winning parents and losing parents when it comes time to determine the best parenting arrangements for a child.