Custody battles can be one of the toughest and most painful aspects of a divorce but what can you do if your spouse takes off with the children?  Host Lee Rosen and attorney Holly Gray discuss the options that one can take with regards to child custody.  They also answer listener questions about cohabitation during separation.

I first heard of the documentary film “Support? System Down” earlier today (although it has been out for more than a year). The site provides a number of trailers for the film which will be playing in New York this weekend. Clearly, the film comes at the issue from a certain perspective. There aren’t many family law documentaries so it seems to me that it’s worth paying attention.

Here is part of the synopsis of the film from their website – “SUPPORT? is a film that covers the everyday issues of stress, family, struggle, and suffering that families experience when put through the detrimental, winding maneuvers of the Family Court systems, which are flooded with more cases than the labor force can handle or chooses NOT to handle.

Finally, a shocking documentary that exposes the truth! Hear what experts say about how some have figured out how to make money by emphasizing on divorce and child support issues between men and women through court orders. Parents are made to pay exorbitant amounts of money in exchange for their CREDIT, HOMES, BANK ACCOUNTS, and even their FREEDOM!”

The New York Times ran an interesting article last week that invesitgates why some people rush into either marriage or divorce not because of love, but health benefits.

While there is no record just how often this happens, lawyers say they are seeing cases on a regular basis where couples marry or divorce in part so one spouse can obtain or maintain health coverage.

In a recent Associated Press article, Lee Rosen of Rosen Law Firm says the breaking point for many couples often arrives with a second or third deployment.

“To go off for one deployment for a year is difficult, but when that soldier comes back, people are able to adjust, to heal,”said Rosen. “When you go a second time, and are threatened with the possibility of a third, it’s just devastating.”

To read the full story, click here.

According to several recent parenting studies, couples with children have lower economic stability, lower emotional well-being, and experience more frequent negative emotions than those without children.

Some parenting studies also reveal that parents have higher levels of depression than adults without children.

These findings go against cultural assumptions that having kids makes you happy.

I just read an interesting piece in USA Today that explores the rules of infidelity.

Is infidelity just about having an affair or does infidelity also involve having lunch everyday with a coworker of the opposite sex? If you abstain from a physical relationship are you safe from being accused of cheating?

Marriage experts say that infidelity can exist even if adultery isn’t part of the picture.

In today’s world, what do you think are the rules of infidelity?

Bachelor Carl Weisman’s recent survey of 1,533 heterosexual men revealed that men were 10 times more scared of marrying the wrong person than never marrying at all.

In 1980 about 6 percent of men in their early 40′s have never married, compared to a current statistic that showed that number had risen to about 17 percent.

According to a recent LavalifePRIME survey of 1,001 adults ages 45-65 in the USA and Canada, 31% have never been married.

The author of So Why Have You Never Been Married?, Carl Weisman, also did a survey and found in 1,533 bachelors ages 40 and older, 48% said they were afraid of marrying the wrong person.

According to a survey conducted by Connecticut-based Prince & Associates, 2/3 of 1,134 people polled nationally said they would marry an average-looking person if they had money- being like $1.5 million.

Does that kind of money even get you very far these days? It certainly couldn’t secure a lifetime of financial happiness. Yet, the survey respondents had annual incomes between $30,000 and $60,000.

But 43 percent of those who responded to the survey said that they would probably end up divorcing their $1.5 million mate. At least they were smart enough to know that money can’t by love.

Since the 1960′s, men’s contribution around the house has doubled from 15% to 30%. A recent study by the The Council on Contemporary Families at the University of Illinois, Chicago shows more husbands are willingly sharing the responsibility of housework and childcare.

The study also shows the longer a wife is employed, the more her husband does work around the house.

Demographers are referring to the Second Demographic Transition, where the increase in divorce in the 1960′s and the trend for people to marry or remarry later in life has increased the potential for wider martial age gaps.

According to 2006 Census data, roughly one-third of husbands are at least four years older than their wives.

And a Stanford University report says, ‘the older a man is when he marries after 40, the greater the likelihood that his bride will be significantly younger – whether that man is wealthy or not.’

Experts say the male ideal of beauty is typically a woman in her early 20′s and this ideal remains as men grow older.

Some experts are concluding that divorce is neither good nor bad. Allen Li, associate director of the Population Research Center at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, says it depends on the individual marriages and the family.

Though Li’s findings contrast with a lot of research on the effects divorce has on children. Some argue that Li is controlling so many things in his study that he is literally causing the effects of divorce to disappear.

1895 was the year of the first showing of Oscar Wilde’s last play The Importance of Being Earnest, and its also the date that’s being used to show the decline in marriages in England and Wales.

According to the Office of National Statistics, marriage in England and Wales is the lowest since 1895.

Some say they aren’t surprised given the lack of government policy encouraging tying the knot and the existing welfare system, which some believe penalises against marriages.

I just read an interesting op-ed piece in the Boston Globe about shared parenting in MA.

Divorcemag makes a good case about the effects of fatherless homes and the lack of a father figure in a child’s life.

According to their findings, fatherless homes account for:
-63 percent of youth suicides
-90 percent of homeless/runaway children
-85 percent of children with behavior problems
-71 percent of high school dropouts, 85 percent of youths in prison

In conclusion, research shows that children in joint custody arrangements have less behavioral problems and fare better overall.

According to a report recently released by the Council on Contemporary Families, men’s contribution to household work has doubled over the last four decades.

An there is a lot of correlation to show that men gain better intimately when they help out around the house.

It often becomes a concern when married people develop close relationships with people of the opposite sex. Though experts say it is possible to maintain a healthy marriage while also possessing a friendship with a person of the opposite sex.

The trouble with opposite sex friendships is psychologically based in the sense that we often choose friends on the same basis in which we choose mates such as their intellectual capacity, world views, values and attractiveness, and so on.

But how can you prevent the relationship from escalating to the next level?

An estimated 1 in 5 couples have sexless marriage, which therapists define as having sex less than 10 times a year. Experts say when couples aren’t having sex they aren’t connecting on a level that brings them closer together, which leads to conflict.

How do you set expectations so that both spouses are content with the level of intimacy in the relationship?

Click here for surprising reasons why you may be in a sexless relationship.

Southwest Florida pastor Paul Wirth urged married couples in his congregation to make love every day for 30 days to bring a positive outcome to strained marriages in an effort to quell the rising divorce rate .

There is even a Web site that’s open to the public: www.30daysexchallenge.com

Single people are also taking the challenge by practicing abstinence for 30 days.

When couples lose the routine and social web of their home life to move abroad, martial strains can become overbearing.

Often times, if the move is tied to a company in the US, a spouse may work extended hours to coincide with his or her American coworkers.

I recently read this article in the Wall Street Journal that covers expatriate life. Writer Alan Paul shares his own experiences and gives advice to those looking to relocate abroad.

You were there through everything else, but it’s not easy to watch your child go through a divorce.

Marsha Temlock, author of “Your Child’s Divorce: What to Expect — What You Can Do” and retired vocational counselor, answers questions in an interesting Wall Street Journal article about accepting your child’s divorce, helping to stabilize their life, and more.

Each year approximately four million parents are affected by their children’s divorce.