ABSTRACT
This quote has been a common tongue-in-cheek definition of home and family for several decades. However, the increasing number of children whose parents are divorced has altered the quote’s meaning to be more poignant than humorous. Divorcing parents fight over legal and physical custody of their children, and these often-bitter personal battles can spill over into the public arena. Their efforts to defeat one another are sometimes successful because in the United States it is possible for divorce laws to change with very little input from the general populace or guidance from researchers and practitioners in the family field. Recent changes in awarding custody of children after divorce have taken place so fast there is little research to support or refute the effects of various custody arrangements. Additionally, because U.S. divorce law is determined at the state level, widespread public debate regarding divorce law is less feasible than in the countries of western Europe and Scandinavia where divorce law is governed nationally (Fine & Fine, 1994).
