Opinion ID: 1918350
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Involvement in the Children's Lives

Text: The court next found that father had a slightly more active engagement in the children's lives. The court cited as support for this finding that fact that father cared for the children before and after school, was involved in their activities, fed them dinner and helped with their homework. The above analysis reveals that father cannot be credited with spending a greater quantity of time with the children; therefore the first basis for this finding is without support in the evidence. Further, it was uncontested that both parents helped the children with homework. The court, however, only made a finding that father helped them, thereby privileging his assistance and failing to fairly consider mother's involvement. The evidence does not support a finding that father was more involved with the children than mother when both he and mother helped them equally with homework. The court also cited as support for its conclusion about father's involvement a finding that father made medical appointments. This finding is clearly erroneous; there is no evidence whatsoever that father had anything to do with the children's medical care. [4] The only evidence regarding father's involvement in medical care was that he had failed to provide insurance coverage for the children since the divorce, despite being required to do so. The undisputed evidence demonstrated that mother provided medical coverage and secured medical care for the children with little or no involvement on father's part. Similarly, the court found that both parents had maintained constructive communication with the children's teachers, but there is no evidence to support finding that father did so. The evidence showed that mother attended parent-teacher conferences and guidance counseling sessions but that father had refused to attend these conferences. There was no evidence, therefore, that father maintained any communication with the children's teachers. A separate finding faults mother because, the court says, she did not have very much information about plans for the children's daily lives or activities in Connecticut. This finding is wholly unsupported. Mother testified at length about the children's schools in Connecticut, about their successful adjustment to it, their choices about extracurricular activities there, the family's hobbies and their plans. This finding is clearly erroneous and cannot stand. These multiple errors taken together eviscerate the court's ultimate finding that father was more involved with the children. The flaws in the underlying findings greatly compromise the conclusion that father's custody is in the best interests of the children. He did not spend more waking hours with them than mother did, nor was he more involved than mother in their lives.