Lewis Hulatt, South East Consultant with Major Family Law, the best national Divorce and Family Law solicitors, comments:
It is not unknown for me to use the inspiration of popular music to reflect upon my work. It goes far beyond ‘Money Money Money’ or ‘Cuts like a knife’ and whilst I can go back to ‘Your feet’s too big’ (1936), songs of different eras express aspects of family work in different tones. Vibes, man.
“We’re all going on a summer holiday!” proclaimed the young Cliff Richard in a somewhat more innocent lyric than The Stranglers adopted in ‘Peaches’ a little over a decade later and way closer to Madonna’s upbeat pop anthem. Lovin Spoonful expressed the urban delights of pavements ‘hotter than a match head’ when it was Summer, whereas Travis may have been equally ‘on the money’ asking why it always rained. Never seen ‘Fog on the Tyne’ in August, but have seen Lindisfarne this time of year.
Summer, with its long school holiday which rarely matches the availability of parents, creates extra stress and as family lawyers, we have the confrontational problem of children’s time with separated parents either in advance or with the last-minute spanners thrown up, whether deliberate or not.
As well as trying to solve time-critical holiday arrangement problems, we later get the spouses for whom a week or two on holiday together is an uncomfortable experience. It does not take temptations beyond the time to reflect on the thought that greater happiness might be possible to get those seeds of discontent nurtured. Discontent is like a rambler or bind-weed – emerging unexpectedly and usually difficult to completely eradicate. After the schools have gone back or couples returned from their self-imposed mandatory breaks, we often experience an upturn in enquiries about separation and divorce.
Maybe your holiday partner is as Steve Harley described ‘A friend for life’ and you decide ‘Let’s stay together’ (or ‘work’ if you prefer Canned Heat) in which case you can enjoy the time.
Just spare me Agadoo and leave the pineapple on the tree.