Difficulties in kids moving home
In the Radio National program, Life Matters, there is a useful discussion with Reesa Soren, Senior Lecturer at the School of Education, James Cook University, about how kids often do not cope with moving home, and about what steps can be taken to minimize the disruption.
Social scientists have long argued that children crave routine. In what are called relocation cases, there has been a tension between a parent’s right to live wherever they want, balanced against the rights of the child, such as maintaining a relationship with the other parent. The parent who wants to move who has the care of the child, usually the mother, often has legitimate reasons for the move, eg repartnering, moving to be near family, career move. The parent who does not have the care of the child, usually the father, may object to the move, usually on the basis that the amount of time spent between that parent and the child is reduced.
The difficulty for the parents, and the courts, is balancing these competing considerations.
