The following is part of the transcript of comments made
in a divorce case by Judge Michael J. Haas of Cass County, Minnesota:
Your children have come into this world because of the two of
you. Perhaps you two made lousy choices as to whom you decided to be the other
parent. If so, that is your problem and your fault.
No matter what you think of the other party - or what your
family thinks of the other party - these children are one half of each of you.
Remember that - because every time you tell your child what
an ‘idiot’ his father is, or what a ‘fool’ his mother is, or how bad the
absent parent is or what terrible things that person has done, you are telling
the child that half of him is bad.
That is an unforgivable thing to do to a child. That is not
love. That is possession. If you do that to your children, you will destroy them
as surely as if you had cut them into pieces, because that is what you are doing
to their emotions.
I sincerely hope that you do not do that to your children.
Think more about your children and less about yourselves. And make yours a
selfless kind of love, not foolish or selfish, or your children will suffer.
