By Sarah Baker, Cohen Garelick & Glazier PC
As we slowly crawl out of the isolating and crippling days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are left with a world that is forever changed. The way in which we work, the way in which we interact, the way we run our daily lives; all forever changed. Even though many things have returned to normal, many things will never return to the way they were before the pandemic.
Working from home has become the new norm for many. Zoom meetings have replaced face-to-face meetings. Things are just different now. People are different now. Included in that group of people are our children. As adults, none of us can really know how hard COVID-19 and its consequences were on the children. What we first thought would only be a few weeks at home turned into years. Children who were regularly seeing friends and teachers at school became forced to remain at home and "learn." To think that children would come out of this time unscathed is naïve. Children were some of those hit hardest.
As a family law attorney, I have seen the multitude of ways children have been affected by the pandemic, caught in the crossfire of parents arguing over the vaccination; perhaps stuck at home with a parent who does not treat them the best; forced to give up activities and sports that were their outlet and struggling to maintain their grades while learning from home. Even worse, some children simply could not sustain living any longer. This article offers some insight into just how bad things have become for teens and how there has been a rise in teenage suicide during the pandemic.
What I believe is often forgotten in our area of practice is that we are not just advocates for our clients, but advocates for the children of our clients. We have a duty to inform our clients on the law, but also to give them sound and reasonable advice for their families. Is it good for a child to have the police at their home for every exchange? Is it healthy for a child to be delayed mental health treatment because a parent is angry over how the mental health professional was chosen? I hope we can all remember that being a good attorney means not only knowing the law and advising our clients on it but also providing them with ways in which they can diminish the conflict for their children.
If you would like to submit content or write an article for the Family Law Section, please email Kara Sikorski at ksikorski@indybar.org.
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