You used to sit like this all the time when you were teenagers. But now, as your legs become increasingly uncomfortable, you start to realize that you're a nearly-forty-year-old cane user, and maybe this isn't so practical anymore.
Keith was sitting in his office, glaring at his stack of paperwork like it had killed his family. If there was one thing he hated about his job; it was paperwork. Fighting aliens and defending Earth he could do, but filling out incident forms and approving contracts? He hated it.
Honestly, I don't think Odalia would get custody just bc the kids would ask for literally any other arrangement & they're old enough that their wants HAVE to be considered. That doesn't mean Alador would get custody/of all of them. The twins might sue for emancipation (+Amity depending on how long things take), they might be sent to a relative/family friend/foster home (+-Alador getting visitation), they might age out of it even being an issue. Odalia would be on the hook for child support tho.
i got a series of asks to this effect a little while ago and i totally forgot to respond to them - no idea if you're the same anon or if two people have the same opinion, but! i will respond now.
i... don't really agree, tbh.
i mean, ultimately, we're talking about a fantasy scenario regarding a cartoon, and i agree that like, if canon actually addresses the whole divorce issue (iffy because i think that's kind of a no-no in kid's cartoons, even though, you know, many kids' parents are in fact divorced) then the most likely thing to happen is that either Alador gets them or it's a split custody situation, because Odalia is in fact a nightmare person.
so i don't want it to come across like i begrudge anyone their headcanons - if you prefer to think about the scenario where Alador gets custody or the twins file for emancipation and then take Amity in or whatever, then feel free to do that, it's not my job or place to police your headcanons.
however SINCE you brought it to my askbox i am gonna go ahead and respond with what i think is likely here
and frankly i... don't really think that the twins or Amity stating a preference is necessarily going to have that much influence. i mean, it just really depends on a lot of different factors.
there are a lot of things that a judge takes into consideration here - who can provide best for the kids materially, who can provide best for the kids emotionally, who offers them the greatest continuity of lifestyle/education/etc - basically what's least disruptive and lets them keep living as close to how they've been living, who's most involved in the kids' lives, who overall seems like the most competent and fit parent, who has it together the most during court appearances and legal precedings, etc etc...
'what the kids want' is a factor, sure, but it's just one and frankly, in most cases, it just is not going to actually matter that much.
like, we know Odalia is a nightmare person. emotional abuse is really hard to prove in a legal sense, though, even when it's something obvious like screaming, verbal abuse, overt and intentional cruelty, etc. Odalia's abuse is very subtle and insidious and very, very easy for her to spin as Just Caring About Her Children And Wanting What's Best For Them.
even moreso than in a lot of cases like this, it's going to come down to he-said she-said, and Alador is not going to come off looking good here.
like, from the point of view of a judge, what we have here is one parent who has been extremely involved in the kids' lives up until now - extracurriculars, friends, school stuff, coven tryouts; pushing them to perform well in school, succeed socially, getting them involved in the family business, arranging playdates, buying clothes, keeping an eye on their school performance, involved with the PTA, etc etc
and one parent who spends the majority of his time in the lab and is so uninvolved in his kids' lives that he didn't even know one of his kids was dating someone
and the parent with the known track record of being involved in the kids' lives is also the one with the business, resources, and money, so she's the one who can keep the kids in the lifestyle to which they're accustomed. leaving her custody would mean leaving their house, it might mean leaving their school - these are very disruptive for kids!
like you're kind of looking at it from the pov of what we, as the viewers know, but that's not necessarily what the judge is going to see, know, or believe. if Alador wants primary custody, then Odalia is most likely going to fight him for it, and i think she has a lot of ammunition for proving that he's not as fit, attentive, or involved a parent as she is AND the ability to spin her own controlling emotional abuse as just being a caring, concerned mother who maybe took it too far and became a bit overbearing and didn't realize the effect it was having on her kids.
as for the twins filing for emancipation, i mean... i look at that and i think, 'on what grounds?'
they can claim emotional abuse, sure, that's definitely going on, but again, it's hard to prove. are they really going to be able to prove to a judge that they'll be better off living on their own, independently financially supporting themselves - much less having legal custody of their little sister - than with Odalia?
i can't say what that process is like in any other country, but in most places in the US (which is where i live and therefore where my knowledge of how this works is based), a minor who files for emancipation has to prove that they have an income and either already have or can quickly get a separate place to live, and if their parent won't agree then they have to be able to prove that they need to be emancipated. it isn't just something you can do on a whim. they can't just say "hey, i don't like living with mom, so release her from her legal obligations to me."
there are kids all over the country and the world who are being forced into custody arrangements they don't want. there are kids who are forced, by courts, to live with or visit parents who are physically and/or sexually and/or emotionally abusive far, far beyond what we've seen Odalia do in canon - things that are much easier to prove and much more widely accepted as types of abuse in the first place, and there are still kids who, with all available evidence, with their own preferences being stated, with their other parent arguing that it's not safe for them to be in their abusive parent's custody, are forced into those situations.
it happens a lot. sometimes it doesn't! sometimes kids and parents get lucky. cultural ideas of what is or isn't abuse, gender roles/sex politics, class politics, what the age of majority is, etc etc all of these impact how a judge is going to view the situation.
but, i mean, what i think is likely to happen here and the scenario i like to consider is very much based in the experiences i've had and the experiences my friends have had and the experiences i have seen many, many, many people talk about having. it's simply not at all universally true that the kids' wishes will be held above everything else, and it's very easy and very common for an abusive parent to make themselves look good and the other parent look bad -
in fact, as we see with Odalia and Alador, part of her abuse has been making sure he isn't very involved with the kids, isn't very reliable, doesn't look very well-kept (because he's exhausted and overworked and barely has time to recover from illnesses), and overall is just going to come off looking bad in comparison to her if he ever tries to challenge her. she's going to be able to keep her cool way easier than he is if it comes down to it.
this is a common tactic by abusers! the person most able to keep their cool and act logical and rational and calm in a situation like this is not often going to be the victim! the victim is probably going to come across as being weird, overly or inappropriately emotional, inconsistent, and just generally a mess, because they're fucked up and traumatized and being manipulated and abused. no one is at their best in that situation.
and when it comes down to two people going up in front of a judge to try and decide who gets primary custody of their three children, how well someone comes across, how together they seem, how calm they can be, how 'reasonable' they seem, how involved they've been, how well they can provide for the kids, who just overall seems like they're going to be able to provide the most stable and least disruptive environment for the children - all of those things are, generally, going to be given more weight than the kids' preferences.
that's just based on my observations here. unfortunately being a kid kind of sucks and it's very easy for abusive parents to maintain control over their children, and the specific ways that Odalia is abusive are incredibly hard to prove.
so, sure, Alador could end up with primary custody, or the twins could end up emancipated and with custody of Amity, but i just don't think either of those things are anywhere near as likely as Odalia getting primary custody.
