Court Opinion

ID: 9652183
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:20:31.035128+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:49.240070
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge,
concurring:
I agree that a court should not “dictate that a parent desert a home where very young children were present . .” Majority Opinion at 113 (footnote omitted). Here, however, the children are not all that young — they are 11, 9, and 7. Cf. Commonwealth ex rel. Kaplan v. Kaplan, 236 Pa.Super. 26, 344 A.2d 578 (1975) (child 12 years old). Accordingly, on remand the hearing judge should be able to receive evidence on whether the mother can reasonably find part-time work. Having been a secretary perhaps she can find such work, and on terms that will enable her to be at home enough so that her children’s welfare will not suffer.
I grant that the mother’s “perception [of] the welfare of the child[ren] . . . is to be accorded significant weight . .” At 114. The degree of significance, however, will vary with the persuasiveness of the mother’s reasons. Here, her statement, “Because there wouldn’t be anyone to care for them,” is somewhat persuasive, but only somewhat. If she had appropriate part-time employment, she could be in the house when the children got home from school.
*115I join in the majority opinion because as I read it, it states implicitly what I have stated explicitly.