[ Collaboration- Access to children]

1/5/2021 [ Collaboration- Access to children] Last week, during my sessions, I came across 2 cases where parties wanted to vary the Court's Order. The issue was access to the children. In one case, the child wanted to change care and control, and in the other, the party felt that the access time lessened with extra activities. While discussing, I realised that there was hidden bitterness. I asked the parties why they felt that the position that they are taking is the best interests of the child and what do they want the court to do? There was silence for a while. Then they began to see differently and started to open up and talk. While there still some hard stance but the channel of communication opened up. Bringing up children is hard work, it becomes more difficult when parents are divorced. Some how parents need to understand that access to children will be dynamic. They would need to be thinking from the perspective of the child and consider the happiness of the child. It’s important for divorced parents to maintain a cordial relationship so that they can navigate through parenting without causing stress to the children.