[It's me]

With all due respect to mother's and fathers. I think the tender years doctrine (despite the PC BS that demands courts rule to the contrary) is still important. The notion is that children need their mother in at least the first three (though I have heard five) years of their development.

A new developing child needs a mother in those tender years.

And then kids need you even more when they are teens.

[longtermmemmory]

Teenagers need both. The tenderyears is based on the extreme narrow nature of the learning in those years.

it is not uncommon for children of divorce to switch residential status from mother to father in the teenage years. In those years it is about interacting outside the home and into the real world.

[sageb1]

"And then kids need you even more when they are teens."

Perhaps if we stayed home and raised them until they became adults, we wouldn't have so many 30-year olds who haven't grown up yet. :)