The term infant is normally defined as a child under the age of three years.The decisions of when infants should spending time with parents after separation are often debated and the child’s developmental and emotional needs need to be carefully considered. It is often difficult to balance the need for shared care arrangements when making decisions for infants and decisions are sometimes made that meet the parents needs rather than those of a vulnerable child.
It is important to remember that the early years of childhood (0-4 years) are a critical period of psychosocial and emotional development and so it is essential that courts and parents recognise this and are able to consider the needs of the children in parenting arrangements. It is the role of the children’s caregivers to ensure that they are provided with their physical and emotional needs, that they are protected from harm and that they are not exposed to undue stress by providing them with consistency and stability.
The risk factors associated with shared parenting of children are accentuated when making decisions regarding infants. These risk factors include:
A history of drug or alcohol addiction by one or both parents and the parents insight into how this impacts children
Family violence and a history of child abuse
Parents who have difficulty separating adult issues from the needs of their child or children
The geographical distance between where the parents reside; and
The parents willingness to support and promote children maintaining a relationship with the other parent
It is important to understand that infants and young children are unable to explain how instability in the post separation parenting affects them. Their frustration and instability is not shown in words but most often in difficulties they have with sleeping and feeding. They will often be hard to settle and may develop behavioural difficulties especially if they are exposed to differing household routines, care environments and parenting skills.
Parents who have develop some form of co-parenting relationship may find the task of co-parenting their infant children a little easier but the challenges they face will be much greater than the challenges of co-parenting older children. This in turn can place more stress and pressure on the parents which can ultimately then affect the infants.
Children in the 0-4 year age group are also most vulnerable to being emotionally and physically harmed due to their inability to self-protect. Infants in the 0-4 year age group also require a safe and secure parent and attachment figure in order to develop normally. Children who do not experience this security in their attachment figure are more inclined to have issues with their social and emotional development and their intellectual development can be affected and be less than optimal.
When making decisions about what time an infant spends with their respective parents it is essential that both parents and those professionals working with the parents consider how essential these developmental years are. There will often need to be orders made that allow for the changing developmental needs of the child over time and this is sometimes incongruent with trying to limit time parents spend in the family court jurisdiction.
As a Family Report writer I am always conscious of such contact and decisions being made for children and encourage the parents to work on their own ability to communicate with one another to assist in being able to be more creative when considering parenting arrangements for infant children. This of course is most of the time more easily said than done and parents can be greatly assisted in this regard when they are being assisted by experienced family law practitioners and judges who understand the complexity of the past-separation arrangements.
