Best Interest 08.11.25
Is 50/50 at a tipping point? Plus: male teacher importance, birth rate-divorce culture connection and more
Hello!
In this monthly roundup of equal parenting news:
The world is organically barreling towards 50/50 parenting. Are laws relevant?
Male teacher shortage, a vision
Would birth rates improve if divorce were fairer to men?
Shoutouts re: gender equality advocacy
Research news
Photo by Brooke Balentine on Unsplash
Is the 50/50 movement obsolete?
Despite millions of dollars of research on how equal parenting schedules affect children, men, women and violence, and thousands of activists working to change laws, I don’t know anyone actively asking the questions:
How many separated parents share parenting time equally?
What is the time-sharing assumption for parents separating today?
In this post, I challenge my colleagues narrowly focused on law change. Evidence shows that in large swaths of the United States, judges, lawyers and everyday people adhere to a cultural presumption of 50/50 schedules when parents split. Why is the movement’s narrative stuck in the 1980s?
How can we study the giant shift towards equal parenting? How do we amplify this success? Pour gasoline on its beautiful fire?
Why are we so reluctant to even recognize this is happening? This Facebook discussion offers some clues.
Equal parenting movement call to action
Is our goal to ensure kids in separated families have equal time with both parents, or to get credit for passing laws?
Those are different goals.
Poll: How many families do 50/50?
Let’s also get a taste of what you see in your community. Please take this poll:
What is the most common schedule in your community when parents separate TODAY?
The male teacher shortage hurts all of us
Why am I writing about male teacher shortages on a site focused on equal parenting for separated families?
Both these movements are rooted in the same debated truth:
Men matter.
The social science is robust, decades-old:
Children who have actively involved mothers and fathers fare better than children who don’t.
Single moms fare better when their kids’ dad shares parenting responsibilities equally.
Single fathers fare better when they are actively involved in their children’s’ lives.
Equality in the teacher workforce is magic as it addresses multiple challenges simultaneously: Lack of male role models for boy and girls, sexist assumptions about caretaking and work, a national teacher shortage and a generation of men who are under-employed and culturally shut out of care work.
Would birth rates improve if divorce were fairer to men?
Adding to the discussion on declining birth rates: Fewer men chose to have babies because divorce and separated family life is so devastating. It’s not hard to understand.
Listen to men. Listen to their perception of marriage and divorce. Men are telling us they don’t be fathers because divorce is so disadvantageous to men. They say:
Half of marriages end in divorce. Divorce robs men of their fatherhood, wealth and income. It’s not worth the risk, they say.
Sexual relationships are also too risky, as men have no reproductive rights and paternity is fraught.
Men’s marriage and parenthood rates reflect these attitudes, and women’s experiences of unsuccessful searches for partners are also real and devastating.
There can be a better way.
If we improve life for separated families with children, will there be more children?
Shoutouts re: gender equality advocacy
Gavin Newsom’s executive order calls for action to address growing chasm of mental health, work and education gaps affecting men and boys.
James Nuzzo studies exercise science and gender, and creates great graphics on his Substack:
Follow George Horne who creates smart content about male suicide and gender equality x.com/TheTinMen:
Research participants needed: Divorced or separated fathers
Matt Peloquin (PsyD, MBA) is conducting a study for his Master’s in Parental Alienation Studies at IFT-Malta, exploring the emotional and grief experiences of divorced and separated fathers He's aiming to hear from 170 fathers via an anonymous online survey.
Research news
Male victims of intimate partner violence: Insights from twenty years of research,” in Open Access Government, by Denise Hines, Enochs Endowed Professor of Social Work at the College of Public Health, George Mason University,
“A review of 246 studies (2011–2022) found that 11.8% of men experience physical IPV, compared to 14.6% of women. Men are significantly more likely than women to be attacked with knives, thrown objects, and blunt instruments. Despite decades of evidence, there is limited recognition of male IPV victims.”
The Scientific Rigor of Parental Alienation Studies: A Quality Assessment of the Peer-Reviewed Research Joshua Marsden, Colorado State University, Partner Abuse, Jul 2025, DOI: 10.1891/PA-2024-0045
“As courts and policymakers are increasingly confronted with polarized discourse around parental alienation, often including claims that it constitutes ‘junk science,’ it is essential that decisions be grounded in a current, systematic, and rigorous evaluation of the scientific literature. This study provides demonstrates that PA research, when reviewed through established standards of scientific rigor, reflects a body of work that is methodologically strong.”
Thanks for the post, but we are a long way from 50-50 parenting. Men still get routinely trashed in divorce court. Augustine Kposawa found that the male suicide risk increases 8 times after divorce, but remains unchanged for women.