Most people might think that they are entitled to equal amounts of time with their children post separation but as Case Laws show this is not always so. These legal precedents form the backbone of the Tender Years doctrine which is routinely used in family proceedings to award custody to the mother and treat the father as a visiting parent. This doctrine is based on the
psychological theory of 'Maternal Deprivation', developed by Dr John Bowlby who said,
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| Dr John Bowlby Father of the Attachment Theory? PART ONE |
"Children who either have no permanent mother figure or who are separated for long periods from their mothers, for instance by evacuation or prolonged hospitalisation, are apt to suffer from a severe inhibition of feelings of love. Such inhibition will lead to varying degrees of inhibition in the growth of conscience". (Why Delinquency? p35, Report of a Conference on the Scientific Study of Juvenile Delinquency, London, 1949)
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| Case Laws in UK Family Proceedings Shared Parenting |
"What is believed to be essential for mental health is that the infant and young child should experience a warm, intimate, and continuous relationship with his mother (or permanent mother substitute) in which both find satisfaction and enjoyment...It is this complex, rich and rewarding relationship with the mother in the early years, varied in countless ways by the relations with the father and with siblings, that child psychiatrists and many others now believe to underlie the development of character and mental health" (p11) .
Many child health care professionals even at the time did not agree with Bowlby's theory and his ideas caused such a furor that the World Health Organisation was obliged to publish a clarification called, 'Deprivation of Maternal Care: Reassessed' (1961). Nevertheless his ideas of child development served the interests of the government at the end of the Second World War which used his theory to encourage women to stay at home to look after the children and release jobs for returning servicemen.
It is claimed by those who credit Bowlby as the 'Father of the Attachment Theory' that he deliberately talked in terms of a mother 'substitute' because he realised that fathers could also fulfill the same parenting role. But even towards the end of his career he still regarded 'Maternal Care and Mental Health' as his 'Citation Classic' because,
"It focused attention on the relationship of a young child to the mother as an important determinant of mental health, with far reaching practical implications, and has given rise to widespread controversy and extensive research. For a recent evaluation of the field (by an erstwhile critic) see Rutter." - Citation Classic® 15 December,1986.
The Baroness Richmond, the only female judge of the UK Supreme Court, was more accurate when she described the Bowlby's view in the following way,
"Professor Sir Michael Rutter qualified the original theory of 'Maternal Deprivation' which had been developed by John Bowlby and expressed for popular consumption in a book called 'Child Care and the Growth of Love'. That theory was that children were damaged by separation from their mother or mother figure. Professor Sir Michael Rutter pointed out that children were not invariably so damaged and that, in any event, other people, including their fathers, are also very important to children"(8 June, 2000).
Dr John Bowlby Father
of the Attachment
Theory? PART TWO
Nevertheless whether it is called the Tender Years doctrine or 'Maternal Deprivation' it is still Bowlby's theory that prevails because Judges are, 'loath to deprive small children of their mothers'. (Clare Dyer, Guardian, 'New law may boost rights for fathers', 29 October, 2001).
