Children of divorced parents sometimes taken unnecessarily into foster care
Many fathers around Finland are fighting to keep children who are in foster care, even though they have joint custody agreements with the mothers.
These kinds of situations arise in divorce cases in which the a joint custody arrangement exists, but the mother suddenly decides that she does not want to let the father keep the children when she is rendered unable to do so.
Such conflicts can last for years. The children in such cases suffer the most, even though everyone involved is ostensibly acting in their best interest. Municipal costs for child protective services have quadrupled in the past decade.
On Tuesday, Veli-Matti Korhonen in Kuopio goes to two children’s homes to bring his four children to his home for two days. The fifth is already at home, having moved from the institution to live with the father after turning 18. The two oldest are living on their own.
The children have said that they have heard that foster families are being sought for them. The previous source of concern is still in their minds - a bailiff said that an application had been made for a restraining order against the father. The application was rejected in court.
“If I had not made it to the court appearance the application would have been approved”, Korhonen says. “After that I would have lost the children. This is terrible agony.”
The agony has continued for more than a year. The parents agreed on joint custody and on living arrangements for the children, but social welfare officials felt that foster care was the better option. They have lived there for over a year.
Korhonen would want the children to live with him, but new problems arose. He got a larger dwelling with room for everyone. The father wanted to meet his children more often, but officials said that there was no need for this, because the mother felt that the current schedule was good enough.
The children would also want to move in with their father. “I can provide for them”, Korhonen says.
However, the matter has not moved forward, nor has Korhonen's application to cancel the foster care order. Korhonen feels that the views of the children are being ignored because officials are waiting for the mother to recover from her medical problems. Officials have also felt that relations between the parents are so strained that it would be better for the children to remain in care.
Korhonen’s work also poses problems. He is an entrepreneur and works long hours. “Should I get a new wife so that someone would be there while I am at work?” Korhonen asks.
Veli-Matti Korhonen is not the only one to be in such a predicament. Helsingin Sanomat has examined the situations of two other fathers.
Although they live in different parts of the country, they share the experience that officials often only listen to the mother. Fathers are ignored. In spite of a joint custody agreement, the children are placed outside the home.
“The law requires that the parents should be treated even-handedly, but in practice, mothers get support, and fathers are left on their own”, says one father. “A father who cares for his children is in a weak position."
The sense of agony is also something that the men share. “This is hell on earth. A weaker person would have given up already.
“It is complicated”, says Reijo Väärälä of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
“Questions linked with custody of children are complicated, if differences arise between parents. Officials interfere only to the extent that is possible under child welfare legislation.”
Even then the threshold is high. “Foster care is temporary, and during the time there must be a constant contact between the children and the parents.”
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 27.4.2010 - TODAY |
 Children of divorced parents sometimes taken unnecessarily into foster care |
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