State Senator Paul Stanley - District 31

Divorce may take longer for parents

Posted by Stephanie Scurlock, WREG
March 11, 2007

MEMPHIS,TN-One Shelby County lawmaker is proposing a longer wait for couples with young children. It's a bill that is raising some concerns.

If love must wait, then some believe so must divorce. Some Tennessee legislators want to force couples with children under 15 yeas old to wait a year before they slid off their wedding rings and divorce on grounds of irreconciliable differences. Couples with children 15 to 18 years old would have to wait 6 months.

Shelby county State Senator Paul Stanley is proposing the bill.

"The extended time frame for divorces where you have minor children would just be in place to allow everyone to have the best interest of the children at heart. To make sure their needs are being met, to really thoroughly examine visitation and to... at the end of the day do what's in the best interest of the child," said Stanley.

Right now the wait is 90 days in Tennessee. Stanley, divorced himself, says he's not trying to keep people from divorcing.

"This is not a bill designed to keep people together. It's a bill designed to look after the children's best interest," said Stanley.

However, some say forcing people to stay together actually hurts the children involved. They believe the government should butt out of family business.

Flora Samuels of East Memphis said, "I don't think the government should impose those kinds of rules in their private life as far as I'm concerned."

John Bassi agrees.

"From what I've heard a lot of times this is bad for the children. It's best to go ahead and separate and each do their thing and one or the other take care of the children," said Bassi.

Divorces are declining in Tennessee. Some credit that to new laws already in place. Judges now require parents to take classes on how the divorce will impact children before granting them. Some believe adding one more law like this one could help strengthen the family bond even more.

On the other end of the spectrum, a group that studied marriages at Rutgers University says the divorce rate across the entire U.S. is dropping and it's not because of more laws. They say fewer people are getting married.