The Alec Baldwin story has more twists in it that a snake if you are reading the local news.  And, as unfortunate as it is, it is good for the Shared Parenting movement!  It has taken the misfortune of others to bring to celebrity state the fact that men and women across the nation are denied visitation and custody of their children.

It was noticed that the AlecBaldwin.com web site was receiving over 100 posts an hour on his guestbook!  It is an incredible number of visitors, with some opposed to what he is doing, some supporting it, and others hoping he does not allow it to affect their favorite show - 30 Rock.  I would estimate about 40-45% were fully supporting him from all angles.  I would love to see the real statistic for it.

Whatever your beliefs in Alec Baldwin and his treatment of his daughter Ireland, either for or against, there is one thing that can't be ignored.  Why is a parent controlled on his/her access to children.  Divorce does not involve a switch that turns off the relationship a parent and child shares.  What right does ANYONE have in controlling access to a child, or even providing an "Award" of custody to one parent or the other.  We strongly believe that in the absense of abuse, anything less than 50/50 custody is family abuse.

We are excited to see what can change with a celebrity now backing changes in family law.  And, Alec was not the only one.  Valerie Bertinelli cam out against PAS, and John Stossel has recenting commented and written about the bad rap that fathers take in the courts.

A Washington State Shared Parenting web site and blog has recently added the State of Washington's Division of Child Support (DCS) staff policy manual on their site in its entirety.  This is believed to be a first publishing of a State Child Support Agencies policy manual in the public domain.

According to a spokesman from WashingtonSharedParenting.com the placement of the manual on the web site was "to ensure non-custodial parents understood the exact policy DCS operates under on a day to day basis, to ensure the rights of NCP's are not being denied or invaded by State staff".  Many times NCP's believe their rights are being denied, placing them on a web site allows them to see exactly what can be done when there are issues, and exactly what can't be done.

It's also believed that if Non-custodial parents understand the reach DCS has into their lives, and the lack of policy and laws to support their visitation with their children, that NCP's will get more involved in helping to make changes to the States Laws that force parenting plans on divorcing parents, yet provides little or no enforcement from a failure by a custodial parent to follow the parenting plan.

"I believe placement of the manual from each and every state on the internet will only help to educate the entire Non-custodial parent community on the issues related to child support payments and a lack of responsibility of the custodial parent to provide both parenting time and accountability for how the monies are spent" the spokeman added.  " I encourage all states shared parenting organizations to order a public disclosure of the states policy manual electronically so it can be added to their site."

If you get a copy of your states manual and need a place to host it, please contact USSharedParenting.com at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , we would be happy to post it on our site for everyone to have access to them.  Its the least we can do!