• 05
  • November
    2011

Parents going through custody disputes have a new instrument against their former, or soon-to-be former, spouses. Obesity. Before it was smoking and drug-use, now obesity is making its way into the child-custody battle arena. The Wall-Street Journal recently noted that family-law experts and practitioner's are seeing an increase in accusations that the other parent as the cause of their child's obesity. Allegations typically claim of poor nutrition practices by a parent causing obesity to the child if the child is not already obese.

Similarly, while there is growing concern for a child's physical fitness, there is also a growing concern for the parents and their physical fitness. A parent's physical fitness and diet can also be used against them in a custody dispute. Parents claim that the other parent is either too obese to provide proper and attentive care to the child or that the obese parent sets a poor example to the child through their own bad eating habits.

Why this newfound focus on obesity? Jezebel, notes it is due to recent changes in the approach to parental custody. Today, both mothers and fathers are requesting some sort of shared arrangement whereas in the past, the courts often awarded mothers sole custody of the child. The issue of obesity is just another creative argument for one parent to use against the other. It becomes yet another item on a checklist for judges to consider when determining the best interest of the child.

Should the courts make the link between parental or child obesity and child care? Is there a viable link between obesity and the best interest of the child? Ultimately, the court's ruling will be premised on all relevant surrounding factors, but how much obesity evidence should it consider when determining custody rights?

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