Family

What does a Mendalian Family consist of?

Most of the information covered here is a summary of the [Marriage And Family Law] established in 137 TS by the Fantasmal Government. For more information, see the article on [that law].  

Marriage

Mendalians have monogamous marriages. Polygamy was abolished but was rarely practiced even before the law was established. Arranged marriages were abolished at the same time, and this was a common practice.  Marriage can only occur between two adults (17+). There is no concept in the law to allow underage marriage or minors being able to marry with parental consent.

Typically, Mendalians marry between the ages of 30 and 75. Notably crystal nons and anti-nons marry early (between 17 and 30) because their life expectancy is much shorter.

Divorce

Divorce is extremely uncommon planet wide, however there are provisions in the law for it. Unless otherwise stipulated by the marriage contract, when a couple becomes divorced under standard law, all assets obtained prior to the marriage are returned to the original owners and all assets obtained during the marriage are liquidated and the proceeds split evenly.

 The only exception is when minor children are involved. A marriage cannot be completely dissolved if the couple has children that are still minors. In these cases, all marriage assets, except the family home and all property within, are liquidated and divided and put in trust for the minor children. The family home is kept as the place of residence for the minor children and when all the children have come of age, it is also liquidated and then divided between the children who were minors at the time of the divorce petition.

While there are still minor children, neither parent is allowed to remarry. All expenses of the minor(s) must be equally attended to by both parents (unless otherwise stipulated by the divorce decree), and one or both parents may continue to reside in the family home. A custodian is assigned to the home to ensure that the minors and the family home are maintained. In all but the most extreme circumstances, both parents continue to have full custody of the minor(s) and full access to the family home. The custodian's job is to ensure that the divorce does not affect the lives of the minor(s).

Children

Since Mendalians can control whether or not they conceive, there are no "surprises" when it comes to children. Couples tend to have one child, sometimes two, but rarely any more. It seems to be a natural tendency to want a small family so population is self-regulating.

It is not legal to have children outside of marriage and on the almost unheard occasion that it does happen and no marriage occurs, similar laws apply as in a divorce. Because of this, there was a long standing legal loophole allowing minors to become immediately emancipated if they had kids. This was exploited primarily by teenagers in love who wanted to get away from their parents before they became adults. This loophole was closed later by changing the law so that minors would not become emancipated. Instead the child would go into the [Sunin Social System] until the parents became of age and they or their families would still be obligated to provide for the expenses of their child until then.