What reforms to marriage & family law would you propose?

jjj2576 · 2026-02-27T15:57:11+00:00

The fact that my ex-wife could have stuck me with her debt was problematic and lame.

blackmamba4554 · 2026-02-27T15:55:10+00:00

You mean heterosexual marriage? IMO the most important that DNA test must be mandatory at birth. Btw in France some men are obliged to raise someone else's children as radfems and their best friends catholics banned DNA test without wives' approval.

NCC-1701-1 · 2026-02-27T16:20:24+00:00

Get rid of outdated concepts like "accustomed to" and that the non working spouse always 'earns' half the working spouse's income. Trying to keep the divorcing spouse at the same lifestyle is insane and has zero moral rationale, if she wants to leave then just fucking leave.

Alimony is outdated, child support is ok however the well being of the father should be equal in consideration to everything else. Caps on payouts need to be established.

63daddy · 2026-02-27T16:43:28+00:00

All states adopt equal presumption of joint custody laws.
Child support needs to be more reasonable and not be used as alimony as it often is. Fathers shouldn’t be expected to pay the brunt of child costs and all the support should be for the child, not the mother. A system where the mother just gets a check is prone to abuse.
Reduce alimony and stop viewing money that’s been earned by one person and is under their name as being communal. I get that a wife who has been out of the workforce deserves some compensation to get back on her feet in the event of divorce but this should be more limited.
Related, require a basic prenup as part of a marriage license. Any obligations a husband will have to his wife in the event of a divorce should be spelled out and agreed to before marriage, not decided retroactively by biased courts.
The whole idea of what constitutes financial abuse needs to be revisited. If a wife refuses to go back to work, providing for her shouldn’t be the husband’s obligation.
Get rid of VAWA and other laws related to relationships that discriminate on the basis of sex. A victim is a victim regardless of their sex and a perpetrator is a perpetrator regardless of their sex. One’s sex should have no bearing in how violence is addressed. Similarly, we need to treat paternity fraud as the fraud that it is, holding women who commit this fraud responsible.

Basically, I think each party should legally be treated as individuals with no assumption one owes the other anything (especially not assumed retroactively) unless such obligation is spelled out in a contract between the two parties and jointly agreed to.

Those are the main legal changes I can think of, though there will still be issues based on hypergamy and gynocentrism even if we make the law gender neutral. For example, assuming the husband is the initiator of domestic violence despite studies showing the opposite is true, means he’s more likely to be inappropriately arrested, be inappropriately removed from the home and more likely to lose the home and children in a divorce.

Wylanderuk · 2026-02-28T00:13:16+00:00

No fault, no ongoing support...And fuck a load of "keeping the same standard of living" bullshit.

And heavy outcomes for false accusations as part of the divorce INCLUDING any lawyer that can be proven to allow it.

Late-Hat-9144 · 2026-02-28T00:51:20+00:00

Get rid of the alimony, screw being able to keep the same living arrangements and have someone else fund your lifestyle when you decided you no longer want to be married to them.

At absolute max, alimony should be time limited to only a couple of months to force the person to do the work of improving their own life.

Soulful_Sadist · 2026-02-28T08:29:59+00:00

No-fault divorce: Gone, permanently.

Automatically presumed 50/50 shared custody (unless there is hardcore proof of illegal and/or SA or DV or especially anything child-related) then it's either 100% to the plaintiff parent or next of kin in the event that BOTH parents are guilty of horribleness: Effective immediately and permanently.

Automatic mandated DNA Paternity test AT BIRTH: Effective immediately and permanently.

Make prenups far more routine and FAR more enforceable. The language should be fair but fit the person initiating and presenting the prenup: Effective immediately and permanently.

Those are just for starters.

RealStarkey · 2026-02-28T11:23:22+00:00

Zero alimony. You want money, go work for it. If you want to stay at home while your partner works, pay for it late in life.

Academic_Mechanic717 · 2026-02-27T16:06:30+00:00

1) Elimination of alimony , child support

2) The man keeps the house.

3) Mandatory DNA tests at birth before signing the birth certificate.

5) 50/50 custody. Or exclusive custody to the responsable parent , if the other parent went down a bad path (drugs, alcohoolism, etc).

Mill-Work-Freedom · 2026-02-27T18:14:57+00:00

Eliminating the marriage license. It is a contract with the state, giving them the control over custody, property etc. All of which leads to siphoning money to them and in these days mostly the female. Just my two cents.

Logicist · 2026-02-27T22:58:59+00:00

So I wanted to see what other people would come up with before I posted. Here are my ideas, many of which people on here share.

At-fault divorce consisting of adultery, abuse, willful neglect & false accusations should be default

These should come with a financial penalty for engaging in this behavior. If you don't want to be married, you can divorce, but you cannot commit one of these and still get the same deal upon exit. False accusations of abuse can come with an even stricter punishment since it is so damaging.

Willful neglect consists of both financial and sexual neglect

I know that sexual neglect is the most explosive of my positions, but I think it's very reasonable. You cannot demand fidelity and refuse to engage sexually. There would be reasonable hardship and good faith clauses, but you cannot just shut down the shop. Cheating & shutting down the shop are out of bounds sexual behavior.

Default 50/50 presumption for custody
Mandatory paternity test to get your name on the birth certificate
Alimony should be tied to how you governed your household. People should have to check a box to state which category they are in.

Egalitarian (both work, both split the housework 50/50) - No alimony

Neotraditional (full-time husband with part-time wife) - A reasonable alimony, call it x

Traditional (full-time husband with SAHM) - A higher alimony. How much? Let's guess 2x

Seneschal Mother (both work full-time, but one manages the household through nannies/daycare/meal prep) - Harder to say because it depends on how much help they get. Let's start off the discussion at 0.2x

Divorce should be handled by binding arbitration

Let's not make this expensive unless there is a hard case

Get rid of lifestyle guarantees in alimony

Pretty obvious

Start counting the clock for alimony at the birth of the child or sometime near there (like the 2nd or 3rd trimester), not at the beginning of marriage

Some states (like California) start at the beginning of marriage. Alimony is for the sacrifice people make for children, not just to be in a marriage

No alimony for disability or old age

The state cannot just mandate an informal welfare system. Mandate that people have disability insurance at the most

Come up with a reasonable formula for earned expectations (reimbursement alimony) and alimony (rehabilitative alimony)

Stop leaving it so much to the judges discretion and people to fight over in court.

Place an upper limit cap on child support

Stop using child support as an informal way of subsidizing lifestyle. Also, an upper limit is completely reasonable.

Get rid of common law marriage & palimony

If people want to get married, then get married. If they want something less, they can sign up for that, but consent is necessary. Stop with the marriage scope creep

Mandatory financial disclosure at the beginning of marriage.

We need to know where the starting line is if this thing goes down.

B_P_G · 2026-02-28T02:02:39+00:00

Child custody should be 50/50 with no support either way other than in circumstances where one of the parents is clearly unfit (eg. a felon or someone with serious substance abuse issues) and there's actual evidence (i.e. not just the spouse's word) to prove that. Or if both parents come to a mutual agreement on something other than 50/50 then they could do that but such an agreement couldn't be imposed by a judge.

And I'd get rid of marriage licenses completely. Make marriage exclusively a religious/social thing. I'd even get rid of married-filing-jointly for taxes. Let each spouse file as a single and evenly split any income or deductions from jointly owned assets. If you do that then divorce is also a religious/social thing. So any assets would be divided up according to whose name is on the asset. If it's jointly owned then it would be split 50/50. You wouldn't need a divorce proceeding but if one spouse drained the joint accounts and walked off with more than their share then the other could sue.

Nathaniel66 · 2026-03-02T07:11:58+00:00

1) If cheating as a cause of divorce is proven, cheater go out with suitcase, leaving everything behind

2) Paternity fraud is a crime with heavy consequences

3) If women decide about abortion, men decide about financial abortion

Githka · 2026-03-02T14:55:44+00:00

The two biggest things dor specifically marriage and family would be 1. mandatory DNA testing at birth and 2. the complete abolition of No Fault Divorce.

UnabsolvedGuilt · 2026-02-27T17:44:06+00:00

This is a bit of a fanatical one but I think even if it means processes are longer, it should all be paid for by tax dollars so that the parties have free attorney representation. Having to pay thousands and ending up in years worth of debt just to get divorced is just crazy to me.

So many people get financially crippled trying to deal w family courts and it is a tactic ppl with more financial support use against those with less, treating it as a war of attrition until the other party gets sick of wasting money and gives up

Title	What reforms to marriage & family law would you propose?
Author	Logicist
Upvotes	34
Comments	29
Date	February 27, 2026 3:42 PM UTC (4 months ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/1rga2h2/what_reforms_to_marriage_family_law_would_you/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/what-reforms-to-marriage-family-law-would-you.1574373 https://theredarchive.com/post/1574373

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