For how long will our mainstream understanding of "parenthood" remain a legal norm? Traditional understandings of the nuclear family already have been transformed by socioeconomic change and political-judicial decision-making. Now this report out of the U.K. gives us a clue of what may be next:
Ask most Britons if they would rather live in France and they'd probably answer 'oui.' But British judges have ruled that two English boys who hate living there don't have to. The boys, 11 and 16, who have a French mother and a British father, were taken to live in France after the parents' marriage broke down. But during a visit to England they asserted their 'Britishness' and refused to return to live with their mother. The mother took the case to court, arguing that she had a right to decide where they should live and that the father had put the children up to it, the Times newspaper reported. But three of Britain's most senior judges decided the boys had an inherent right to refuse to live in France, where nearly 300,000 Britons have chosen to live. Describing the case as 'not just exceptional but very exceptional,' the chief judge said it was clear the children really disliked the country and hadn't settled in.
Admittedly this was a divorce case and custody issues were involved. The court was not only deciding what "parenting" means - does it mean you can move your 11- and 16-year-olds to a different country against their wishes? - but also who held custody of the plaintiffs. It's worth asking, though: Do 11- and 16-year-olds truly understand their identities so well as to assert their "Britishness" in a court of law? About the only fact I knew for certain when I was 11 was that I liked Darkwing Duck.