It’s never a nice feeling to be caught between parents, especially as a young child.
One divorced couple in Singapore, however, has reportedly been battling in court for over a year to decide who their 13-year-old son would spend Chinese New Year (CNY) reunion dinner with.
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As the gridlocked court battle concluded, the judge urged the parents to be reasonable and encouraged them to compromise so as not to spoil their son’s CNY experience.
According to Lianhe Wanbao, the couple divorced in 2012 after a marriage that lasted 25 years.
During their marriage, the former couple had 4 children together. The eldest of which had tragically passed away while the other 2 daughters are no longer minors.
The divorced couple then shared custody over their 13-year-old son. The teen would spend weekends and school holidays with his father and the other days with his mother.
This arrangement went on smoothly for several years.
However, about 2 years ago, the divorced couple’s relationship soured and the mother attempted to amend the terms of their joint custody.
This included an arrangement where their son would take turns each year to spend CNY Eve with each parent.
According to the mother, the pair have not managed to make proper arrangements over who their son would spend time with over the CNY festive season.
Though the mother hopes to share the time with their son with her ex-husband, the father reportedly insisted on bringing the son to his family for reunion dinner and will have him over until the second day of the Lunar New Year.
He reasoned that his son should be spending time with relatives during his formative years, further arguing that that wouldn’t be the case at his ex-wife’s reunion dinner where there are no other relatives present.
After some deliberation, the family court ruled that the son will spend time with both parents on CNY Eve.
Specifically, the judge decided that the son would spend time with his mother until 8.30pm before he gets ‘passed’ to his father.
According to Lianhe Wanbao, both parties rejected this decision and appealed to the High Court.
The father argued that after the first reunion dinner, his son would be too full for another dinner.
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Upon review of the case, the High Court promptly rejected the appeal, citing that there was nothing wrong with attending 2 reunion dinners.
We hope the parents would eventually settle their differences amicably and not let the dispute affect their son’s CNY experience.
After all, the festive period is supposed to be a joyous time. Dragging their son through such a prolonged dispute would only cast a gloomy shadow over the annual occasion.
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Featured image adapted from Flickr.
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