Posted on December 22, 2017 in Kane

Every day, people make the decision to divorce their spouse. Sometimes, the split is related to adultery or abuse, and other times the spouses simply no longer wish to be married. For many of these couples, divorce is something they never saw in their future. Most couples get married with the hope of spending the rest of their lives together. They share not only their lives but also all of their possessions. This can make the issue of property division especially tricky during divorce.

Couples who are considering divorce may worry about how their savings account, retirement accounts, family home, vehicles, furniture, and other assets will be divided. In Illinois, property is divided based on what is “equitable.” This means that the property may not be split exactly evenly. Instead, it will be divided in accordance with what the court deems to be fair and just. Each case is different, but generally, a judge will consider factors such as:

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 Posted on December 20, 2017 in Main

There are nearly 4 million divorced parents in the United States today. For many of these parents, the holidays can be especially difficult to navigate because they have family visiting from out of town who want to see the children or who brought presents for them. How is a divorced parent supposed to please everyone during the holidays and still stay sane? The short answer is that it is impossible to please everyone when you are sharing parenting responsibilities with an ex-spouse. But with some planning and flexibility, it is possible to have a happy holiday season as a divorced parent.

Be Proactive

As the old saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail.” This is especially true when it comes to issues of parental responsibilities and parenting time. If you already have a parenting agreement in place, sit down with a calendar and note how your regular parenting schedule aligns with the holidays. In some formal Parental Responsibility Agreements, holidays are treated like regular days and sometimes, they have their own schedule and rules. Once you know who will have the children and when, you can start to figure out how to arrange the holiday activities or family visits. Do not wait until the last minute to make plans.

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 Posted on December 13, 2017 in Main

The issue of sexual harassment has never before been talked about with the candor and seriousness that it has been of recently. Allegations of sexual harassment that were made against many high-powered individuals such as President Donald Trump, Senator Al Franken, and film producer Harvey Weinstein, have started a fury of backlash against perpetrators of sexual abuse, both famous and unknown. In fact, Time Magazine recently announced that its prestigious “Person of the Year” designation goes to the “silence breakers”: Those brave individuals who came forward with their stories of sexual harassment and started a movement. Women and men of all ages, ethnicities, and income levels are reporting past instances of sexual harassment, assault, and other sexual misconduct.

What Is Sexual Harassment?

Sometimes the terms sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, inappropriate behavior, and abuse are used incorrectly or interchangeably. It can be confusing to know exactly what the law is. Sexual harassment is technically a form of sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines sexual harassment as "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment." Sexual harassment can include behaviors such as:

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 Posted on December 08, 2017 in Kane

The purpose of child support is to help the primary residential parent of a child or children to be able to afford basic necessities such as rent or mortgage payments, the child's clothing, school supplies, and their meals. Those who receive child support often depend on that extra income in order to pay their bills and maintain a good quality of life for their children. For some parents, a missed payment here and there will not cause a major financial crisis. For others living on a tight budget, a missed child support payment can be devastating. During the holidays, many parents rush to the stores to buy their children Christmas gifts. However, it is important to note that the money spent on children's Christmas gifts cannot count toward child support payments.

Changes to Child Support in Illinois

Recently, several major changes were made to the way Illinois courts calculate child support. The amount of child support that is awarded to a parent is now based on an “income shares” or “shared parenting” model. The incomes of both parents are now taken into account, rather than solely that of the paying parent. The new model also takes into consideration how much time the parents each spend with their children on an overnight basis. This is intended to help alleviate the child support costs for those parents who also spend money on their children during their parenting time. The new model is based on three main factors: the estimated total amount of money needed to raise the child, extra costs that a parent may encounter such as expenses for health care, education, and after-school activities, and the amount of overnights the child spends with each parent.

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 Posted on November 20, 2017 in Main

If you are a divorced parent, you may find it very tough to pursue your own personal interests and hobbies. Between work and providing for your children, it might be nearly impossible to find time to travel, meet with friends, or participate in fun activities. It is important to develop an identity apart from being a parent as doing so is crucial to your psychological and emotional health. One of the biggest challenges that you are likely to face as a divorced parent is finding a sitter to care for your child when you need it. Depending on your situation, however, your parenting plan may require you to call your child's other parent first.

What is the Right of First Refusal?

According to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, a divorced or unmarried couple's parenting plan may grant what is known as the “right of first refusal” to one or both parents. The right of first refusal essentially gives a parent “first dibs” on the opportunity to care for the child if the other parent needs alternative childcare during his or her normal parenting time. This may seem rather complicated, but it is actually quite simple in practice.

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 Posted on November 08, 2017 in Main

According to a recent study by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, up to 95 percent of workplace sexual harassment victims never file a formal complaint. Considering that thousands of formal complaints are filed every year, this means countless other victims suffer silently. If that number sounds outrageously high, take a look at the posts that have been flooding Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets in recent weeks. Chances are good that you will find countless examples of sexual harassment and assault that have gone unreported before now—many of them from family members and others in your social circles.

Such posts were prompted, in large part, by a single tweet from actress Alyssa Milano who expressed her feelings in the wake of accusations against famed film producer Harvey Weinstein. In her Twitter post, Milano encouraged women who have been sexually assaulted or harassed to reply, “Me too.” Within hours, the responses began to flood social media, and Milano herself replied to her own post with a “Me too.” Women from all walks of life—including numerous other high-profile actresses and entertainers—started sharing their stories of sexual harassment, most of them marked with the trend-tracking hashtag #MeToo.

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 Posted on November 07, 2017 in Kane

Divorce is not an entirely new phenomenon but it has certainly become more socially acceptable and widespread over the last 40 or so years. As divorce became more commonplace in the 1970s and 80s, a divorcing couples' children were generally left under the care of their mothers. Divorced dads, by and large, seemed to be less important—with the exception of child support—in the bigger picture of raising the children.

In many ways, this custom was a reflection of the cultural belief that mothers were more nurturing and more inclined to raise children properly compared to fathers. While fathers were given occasional “visits” with their children, it was difficult for men to foster true parent-child relationships with their sons and daughters. In fact, many were more like an uncle figure or family friend than a dad.

New Understandings

Since then, family and relationship experts have conducted dozens of studies regarding the health and well-being of children after divorce. Many such projects looked directly at how children in joint or shared parenting arrangements fared compared to those in sole custody situations. These studies have been conducted using different methods, both in the United States and in other countries, and the results have been largely the same. Children who spend a significant amount of time with each parent—35 percent or more—tend to do better socially, psychologically, and academically than children who live with one parent and just visit the other. Shared parenting arrangements also result in better relationships between the children and both parents.

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 Posted on November 02, 2017 in Main

If you receive child support payments, the presumption exists that you will use that money to buy things that promote your child's well-being. Defining what those things are, however, can be difficult. The law in Illinois provides some guidance regarding what child support payments should be used for, but such decisions are usually left entirely up to the recipient parent.

Illinois Law

The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act states that both parents are responsible for contributing toward meeting the “reasonable and necessary educational, physical, mental, and emotional needs of the child.” The parent granted a majority of the parenting time fulfills a portion of this responsibility by providing the child with his or her primary home and daily basic needs. The other parent, therefore, will usually be required to make child support payments based on the income of both parents and the number of children being supported.

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 Posted on October 20, 2017 in Kane

Countless factors could contribute to a couple's decision to end their marriage and seek a divorce. Such factors may include differing views on money, a breakdown in communication, unrealistic expectations, and infidelity. Relationship experts have long recognized that having children can also affect the stability of a marriage. Many couples find that adding children ultimately makes their marriage stronger while others are driven to the point of divorce. While there is no way to know for sure what children will do to your marriage, a recent study suggests that having a first-born girl could increase your chances of divorce.

Different Studies, Different Results

Several research projects over the last few years have looked at the possible link between marital happiness and a child's gender. A few conducted in the United States have found that parents who had girls first were more likely to divorce than those with first-born boys. Other American studies challenged such findings, but until now, there has been very little research done into how girls affect their parents' marriages.

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 Posted on October 17, 2017 in Main

Genetics play a large role in our physical appearance, our health, and many other aspects of our lives. Of course, so does the environment in which we live. For decades—if not longer—researchers have been exploring the impact of what is colloquially known as “nature vs. nurture” on a wide variety of human behaviors. Forming healthy interpersonal relationships would seem to fall into the category of learned behaviors—or nurture—but new evidence suggests that genetics may have an effect as well. Divorce, it appears, may be genetic and runs in families as a result.

A New Look

Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University collaborated with a team from Lund University in Sweden on a project that examined the relationships of adopted children, their adoptive parents, and their biological parents. The study looked to test the widely held belief that children of divorced parents are more likely to divorce simply because that is what they know and are conditioned to see as normal.

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