Although we certainly don’t know for certain how movie star Kate Winslet has arranged her parenting time with the fathers of her children, it would appear that she has exclusive custody of the children. There are certainly parents in Pennsylvania with sole custody of their children, but the more common arrangement is for shared custody. With shared custody, both parents have some time with the children, which is often in the children’s best interests.
Winslet has recently come under fire for her parenting arrangements after she gave an interview in Vogue magazine. The 38-year-old mother of three said that her children “don’t go back and forth; none of this 50/50 time with the mums and dads.” Now, a fathers’ rights group is targeting her, saying that children deserve to have both parents in their lives.
Some people in Berks County may not see the connection between this story and custody cases here, but Winslet’s story is instructive nonetheless. For one, one of Winslet’s exes has said that this group does not understand his family’s circumstances. As with any child custody decision in Pennsylvania, each individual family’s circumstances will dictate how much time (if any) a judge will give parents. Though an equal amount of time between parents may be ideal for some parents, for others it makes far more sense for one parent to have exclusive custody and the other parent to have supervised visitation time.
Though Winslet’s comments may have come off as harsh, since we don’t know her and former partners’ circumstances, we don’t know whether her arrangement is fair. What we can say, however, is that this fathers’ rights discussion draws important attention to creating fair parenting agreements.
Source: The Huffington Post, “Kate Winslet Targeted By Fathers’ Rights Group Over Parenting Arrangements,” Cavan Sieczkowski, Dec. 19, 2013