Penny Booth: 'Sacred Cows' of family life and misery

Feuding parents are made to attend ‘custody' classes - the programme is already under way in Surrey and during two evening sessions allows parents to find out how much damage feuding with their erstwhile partner does to their child(ren). The Times has got all the best stories (25 September page 35) and it is later in the pitch that the interesting facts come out - though not the correct technical terms. The number of divorces is falling but the number of couples making use of the court system to resolve contact disputes is actually rising.

So much then for the hopes of the next (which one?) generation to take parenthood more seriously than their personal partnership? Compulsory and Cafcass funded (the only exception being ‘danger' to parties) in Surrey as a ‘trial' the newspaper reports that in the family law review currently underway there might be movement afoot to make these kinds of classes compulsory for all such cases throughout the country. In this...

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