What reforms to marriage & family law would you propose?

dday_throwaway3 · 2026-02-28T20:13:31+00:00

Presumptive 50% parenting time. Kids have the right to both parents, equally.
Limit spousal support to 3 years for rehabilitative learning. Someone doesn't get a free ride their entire life because it was that way during marriage.

db1342 · 2026-02-28T04:12:28+00:00

No tax breaks for married couples. That you said some promises you didn't mean and threw a party should be of no interest to the state. Tax breaks should only be for parents, because only they are doing something the state has a valid reason to subsidize. That would cause there to be way fewer marriages. Marriage means resource pooling, and resource pooling always produces freeriding. In a partnership there should be two free standing adults. In a marriage there's usually an adult and a child.

jimsmythee · 2026-02-27T21:01:30+00:00

Fix the court system that says “mothers can do no wrong.”

I divorced my pill popper exwife. Two kids. I had to show evidence of her conviction for “dui with kids in the car” and jail for when she got into yet another great big DUI crash.

Hurting the kids in a DUI crash? That swung the pendulum in my favor and only with that, could I get 50/50 custody.

My lawyer said “it’s family court. Just be glad you weren’t the one with a conviction for that. You would have gotten supervised visitation only.”

a_day_at_a_timee · 2026-02-27T18:46:58+00:00

Default 50/50 custody. It's not the 1950s anymore.
Default income imputation at full time minimum wage. We are all adults here. Women need to stop getting a pass on growing up.
Income taxes on child support / alimony are paid by the receiver. It's like she's getting a tax free gift of $30,000 a year which wouldn't be legal in any other financial transaction. That and I'm paying the highest possible bracket for money I earn that I don't even get to see.
The Silver Bullet divorce needs to be fixed. Any allegations of abuse (mental or physical) throw everything off and result in the women getting temporary 100% custody which she can later use to argue for status quo to keep kids 100% because its been this way for 6 months and the kids don't need their schedule messed with. Allegations of abuse should be dealt with a burden of proof and not just she said "he threatened her". There is a fine line with douche bags who actually hurt / kidnap /kill their partners and I'm sensitive to this argument, but I also know that my ex's BS claims of abuse cost me $35,000 and took 4 months without seeing my kids to get dropped.

Ok-Cause1108 · 2026-02-27T18:31:22+00:00

Default 50/50 custody in all states. The vast majority of states already do this but there are a handful of hick states where dads still get screwed over. This needs to change.

Mandatory waiting period and pre-marital counselling prior to marriage. They do not teach relationship skills in schools, and most parents are clueless themselves so cannot teach their children. Instead toxic relationship dynamics are replayed generation after generation. This is a huge reason for the high divorce rate and why people choose poor life partners for themselves.

Mandatory fines for verified cases of adultery/and or physical abuse leading to divorce. The partner who commits this crime should be fined a minimum $50,000 and scaling up based on income. This money will be used to cover counselling, housing costs, and paid time off work for the left behind partner and children. If the fine cannot be paid then the government will pay and recoup the unpaid fines from social security payments in the future with interest.

BigBubbaMac · 2026-02-27T18:24:23+00:00

Unless there are legitimate disabilities, any sort of imputed income calculation should start at 30hs/week at minimum wage. Part time minimum wage isn't asking for the world, it's asking the party to be an adult and take care of themselves.

A stay at home parent shouldn't be looked at as "sacrificing their career", because having a career isn't looked at as "sacrificing ones family"

Stay at home parent shouldn't get any special treatment.

Queasy-Bid4796 · 2026-02-27T16:59:42+00:00

The biggest change I would make is removing judge discretion. Everything should be hard numbers all the time and things like imputed income should be standardized (e.g. for men average of last two years and then you can go back to get it adjusted if you’re not making that money anymore, for women college degree but no work experience x formula). The current system has way too much ‘discretion’ which leads to biased outcomes.

Title	What reforms to marriage & family law would you propose?
Author	Logicist
Upvotes	2
Comments	9
Date	February 27, 2026 3:45 PM UTC (4 months ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/Divorce_Men
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/Divorce_Men/comments/1rga5dz/what_reforms_to_marriage_family_law_would_you/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/Divorce_Men/what-reforms-to-marriage-family-law-would-you.1574378 https://theredarchive.com/post/1574378

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