Knowledge

We live in an increasingly complex society and today more than ever the world demands a maturity of African American parents that we must achieve. Many parents find themselves in expensive courtroom battles over their children that they cannot afford.

Wisdom

Historically, African American parents split up, go their separate ways, the mother caring for the children and the father moving on and that was the end of it. Those were the "old days", now we have the government actively enforcing collection and payment of mandatory child support, fathers that desire to remain in their child's life, and mothers that want their support emotionally and financially. The more sophisticated will surely realize that the system truly only accommodates the wealthy & the secure while creating hell for the poor.

Kindness

Over 75% of African American children are born to single parents today. If we do not learn to resolve our differences ourselves immediately then the family courts will be left with no other alternative than to see parenting as some horribly clumsy & deadly game we have decided to play

Intelligence

Our greatest obligation to our children is to prepare them to understand & deal effectively with the world in which they live & not with the world we have known or the world we would prefer to have. Adults, like children, seldom improve when they have no other model then themselves to copy after and the most effective way for most to cope with change is to help create it.

Simplicity

In private matters everyone is equal before the law. In public matters, when it is a question of putting power and responsibility into the hands of one person rather than another, what counts is not rank or money but the ability to do the job well. This is equally true for mothers and fathers that co-parent as well as for those that help parents determine how they both will support their children emotionally and financially.

Abstract

Throughout the years, Texas Family Code: Title 5. The Parent-Child Relationship and the Suit Affecting the Parent-Child Relationship has the coined termed best interest of the child. In fact, it has created an unintentional indoctrination to parental alienation therefore, leaving little to no access for courts to rectify and resolve the parent-child relationship. Arguably, researchers have suggested that the legal system engages in gender ideologies that contributes to parental alienation. The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences of African American noncustodial fathers' interaction and how Texas family code possession order impacts the father-child relationship. Social construction and policy design theory was used to analyze their experience. Using a qualitative phenomenological study, data from seven African American noncustodial fathers were collected. The results of these analyses indicated nine themes that identified the African American noncustodial fathers experience with Texas family code. The nine themes were: (a) great father-child relationship, (b) standard legal rights as a father; (c) child support system biased and unfair treatment toward them as a father; (d) lack of understanding to the term best interest of the child; (e) equal parental rights (time, roles, finances); (f) removing the label of being deadbeat; (g) wanting more parental time with children; (h) updating the child support policies to be fair to mothers and fathers, (i) limited familial structure. Legislators may benefit from the results by creating policies and laws based on scholarly research leading to positive social change.

African American Fathers' Experiences of Alienation from Their Children due to Texas Family Code