Do you have an agreement on
conservatorship or not?
Who gets the kids is a battle waged
all too often in Judge Terrilyn rights
court. More than fourteen thousand
divorces were filed here last year.
And each day, parents and lawyers fight
for custody of the children.
They're focused on winning.
And there simply is no
winner.
In a custody battle, the big losers
are the kids, like three year old Jeremy.
His mom wants custody.
His dad may not agree, and he's caught
in the middle.
He said, Mom, my dad said, I'm going to
live with him. And he had big tears in
his eyes. And he said, But,
Mom, you know, what about you?
Whether Marty Hendrix wins here or not,
her son is the loser.
The truth is, many of the emotional scars
a child receives in a custody battle
occur before the case ever gets to court,
when mom is pitted against dad, the tolls
on the child can be devastating.
It's like the very foundations of a
child's world have been shaken.
Psychologists say divorce and custody
battles can cause kids schoolwork to fall
off behavior problems and physical
illnesses to crop up and relationships
to suffer. Stephen Hermann has written a
book on the subject.
I mean, it's like if they were a machine,
they would the smoke would be coming out.
They'd be short circuiting.
Did you ever feel that maybe the divorce
was your fault?
Help is available through groups like
guardian angel.
Counselors help children cope with guilt,
despair and confusion.
They're feeling Barrett Walker is still
dealing with his parents divorce.
I didn't know what we were doing.
She said, go get
in the car. I tried to come home.
For thousands of Texas kids.
The wounds opened in the courtroom may
take years to heal.
Brian Mylar, Texas News 5.