Best Interest: 7.21.2025
2025 KY DV trends, Men in Ed, IPV male victim paper
Hello!
In this issue:
Update on domestic violence and family court filings in KY
Talk to me about male teacher rates
Celebs who 50/50
Good mainstream articles on equal parenting
I communicated with Kentucky’s Administrative Offices of the Courts (super-helpful, accessible to you, too), and updated the data on family court filings and domestic violence cases in relation that state’s equal parenting law, which passed in 2017:
Update on domestic violence and family court filings in Kentucky
In summary:
In 2017, the Kentucky legislature passed the country’s first presumption of equally shared parenting time when parents separate or divorce. What’s happened since that date has torpedoed arguments that a 50/50 presumption will increase family violence.
Between 2010 and 2024, the number of domestic violence claims filed alongside family court filings fell by 80%, even as Kentucky’s population grew. But this is not the whole story. Rates of family court filings involving claims of violence picked up steam in the years since the 50/50 law was enacted.
Before Kentucky’s equal parenting law was passed in 2017, family law cases co-filed with domestic violence cases fell an average of 5% each year. After the law was passed, those numbers have been falling by 16% each year, on average.
Those who observe these issues recognize these trends as good news: take the fight out of divorce and family law, and false claims go away.
Equal parenting movement call to action
If you don't care who gets credit, it is amazing what you can accomplish.
Does our movement reflect this truism?
Increasing numbers of male teachers
Last month my kids and I traveled to Japan, a highlight of which was spending a day in the school of our friend Yuko, who is a 6th grade teacher at a suburban public school. The kindergarten class was taught by a male teacher, and his assistant teacher was also a man. Everyone in the room was having a good time, and as a passerby, I was having a good time in the hallway noticing my surprise at the scene.
Men make up less than 25% of K-12 teachers in the United States, and that figure is 3% in early childhood classrooms. Men are lacking at home, and men are lacking at schools which are suffering unprecedented teacher shortages. There has been some ink about how the dearth of male teachers hurts boys, but this shortfall hurts girls, too. Everyone benefits when men are educators, caretakers, leaders, including the men themselves, their female colleagues and all parents who need more support in raising our kids.
Men matter and we need them to be an equal part of all facets child rearing.
I’ve been searching for literature and robust programs to create a blueprint for effective recruiting and retention of male teachers, but am coming up short.
I am starting to work on correcting this issue of a lack of male ECE-K12 teachers. Reach out if you are also interested. Let’s work together. I don’t care who gets credit!
Articles about 50/50 parenting
On the popular mom blog Cup of Jo, nine women share their experiences about equally shared parenting, which are overwhelmingly positive:
“For the first time since having my son, I’m experiencing roles outside of caretaking, like being a present friend, a sister, and a 40-something-woman on the dating scene. I used to think that a ‘good mother’ was with her kids all the time, but that’s not true.”
Canada’s National Post did a good job with its Second-class dads: Why are family courts still siding against fathers?
Slate’s Care and Feeding columnist Jamilah Lemieux, a single mom with a new book out next year, sets straight a dad who wants to pay 50% of his share, but not take on 50% of the care responsibility — a very real dynamic that many families struggle with and the movement ignores or denies.
“It’s not right for you to opt out of raising your children because it’s inconvenient. It’s not fair to your ex to leave your children with them 100% of the time. You may be paying 50 percent of the bills, but you’re doing none of the labor.”
New Best Interest posts:
50/50 parenting and celebs
Secret Lives of Mormon Wives' Taylor and her ex share parenting time 50/50. No link as I know this from watching this quality programming (my husband is still mad at me for making him watch it.)
Days of Our Lives characters Sarah and Xander battle of the dad’s desire to share parenting time 50/50.
“Mama June: Family Crisis” stars Lauryn “Pumpkin” Shannon and Josh Efird divorced, but share parenting time 50/50.
General Hospital star Steve Burton moved closer to his kid's mom to pursue 50/50. She's not having it.
WWE star Nikki Bella and ex share parenting time 50/50 and she pays child support and alimony.
Research news
These papers related to custody, gender and child development crossed my desk in recent weeks.
If you have research you want to disseminate to the world, reach out.
Male victims of intimate partner violence: Insights from twenty years of research, on Open Access Government, May 25, 2025. A meta-look at the topic from Denise A. Hines, Ph.D., Enochs Endowed Professor of Social Work at the College of Public Health, George Mason University.
Highlight: Men are about 50% of intimate partner violence victims and more likely than women to be victims of severe assaults. Citations re: parental alienation
Research trends on the intricate dimensions of divorce among women: A bibliometric analysis by Sujatha Giridhar Elisetty and Ravi Shanker Datti. Women's Studies International Forum, Volume 108, 2025.
A 2025 meta analysis of 435 studies found that divorce has a negative impact on women’s health, quality of life, autonomy, and social connections with scant exceptions.
CONFERENCES OF INTEREST
Men & Families (International Families Alliance)
I’m speaking!
Barbados
Sept. 9-10, 2025
Americans for Equal Shared Parenting Legislative Conference
Mark Ludwig
Boston
Sept 20, 2025
International Conference on Shared Parenting
(Someone just told me I’m speaking so I guess I am?!)
Lisbon, Portugal
Dec. 3-6 2025
Call for papers and speakers!