Kramer vs. Kramer

Marley Marriott, period 9: Kramer vs. Kramer

In society today, the court is most likely to support the mother and give her the benefit of the doubt, even if they don’t deserve it. In the moving Kramer vs. Kramer, Joanna Kramer, the ex-wife of Ted, gets their child, Billy. Even though she abandoned her son without explaining why, the court granted her custody purely because of the fact that she was the mother. I do not think that Joanna deserved custody of Billy. She cannot be counted on and she is the one that is at fault for the psychological damages to her child. During the court case in the movie, Ted’s lawyer does an excellent job of pointing out the fact that nothing Joanna has done has been permanent and that if the child was placed with her there is no telling what she would do because she is unpredictable. I believe that she didn’t try hard enough to make things work with Ted and she did not explain where she was going and when she would be back. She is flaky, and she did not deserve custody of Billy in the end. Ted did.

In my opinion, it doesn’t matter if the child lives with the mother or the father. It is not about gender, it is about the need of the child and who can best satisfy those needs. The qualities of a parent don’t depend on the gender of the parent. Although mothers tend to be the guardians in divorce cases, the judge should look at it as a case of who is better for the child, and they should be able to legally justify why they chose who they chose. Both parents should be able to equally take care of the child but for children with divorced parents, it’s difficult to have to transition from home to home. The child should live with the best suited parent and have regular visits with the other.