{"id":10028,"date":"2014-04-15T10:37:54","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T10:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/?p=10028"},"modified":"2014-04-15T10:37:54","modified_gmt":"2014-04-15T10:37:54","slug":"modern-families-discriminated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/modern-families-discriminated\/","title":{"rendered":"Are modern families being discriminated against?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong><span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">Getting the family ready to go on holiday can be stressful. Making sure everyone is out the house to the airport at 4am, remembering to lock the back door, ensuring you\u2019ve packed the requisite gallons of Factor 50, and, of course, making sure you have everyone\u2019s passports.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\r\nBut what happens if those passports cause problems when you reach the border? For hundreds of thousands of parents across the UK, having a different surname to their children means distress and confusion every time they try to take their children abroad.\r\n\r\nIf a parent doesn\u2019t share a surname with their child, border control officials have no way of knowing if they are really related. Yet parents and children having different names is increasingly common amongst modern British families. More women are keeping their maiden names, re-marriage is on the rise, bringing with it name changes and blended families, and more couples are choosing to have children before getting married. So shouldn\u2019t passports be adapting to reflect this?\r\n\r\nAs it stands, border control staff can subject parents and children to distressing questioning to verify their relationship. This can be hugely confusing for children and stressful for parents who could do without the added hassle. There exists no clear guidance from the Government as to what documents parents should be carrying to prove they aren\u2019t lying about their family tree. Different organisations give different answers, ranging from some which say you should be carrying birth certificates to divorce certificates, even death certificates in some cases.\r\n\r\nThis is the situation I found myself in time after time. I have a different surname to my children and never manage to travel smoothly. I received lots of conflicting advice, at one point being told that I should be carrying 7 different pieces of supporting documentation. My niece, who does have the same name as me, has been able to pass through with me unchallenged. But my biological children are always subject to extensive questions. It got to the point when the situation was becoming ridiculous and it wasn\u2019t just happening to me.\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s why I started the Parental Passport Campaign. The campaign is calling for a simple change to children\u2019s passports which would end this stressful experience which affects 600,000 families across the UK.\r\n\r\nAllowing parents or legal guardians to add their names to children\u2019s passports, which could be verified when the passport was applied for, would allow border control to make a quick and simple check when families pass through.\r\n\r\nOf course, it is paramount that border staff ensure children are travelling with the correct adults. But there must be an easier way to verify this than random questions and various other bits of ID. That is why I believe that giving parents the option to put their names on kids\u2019 passports would help when the link is not immediately clear.\r\n\r\nIt seems so simple and straightforward; it would end stress for families, stop border control having to waste their time on such cases, and allow all families to travel safely and smoothly, no matter what combinations of names they\u2019ve chosen to have!\r\n\r\nThe Parental Passport Campaign has been calling on the Government to do something about this issue and help families across the UK. We\u2019ve spoken to a lot of MPs from across the political spectrum who support the campaign but, so far, the Home Office haven\u2019t been keen to make this change, even though it would be straightforward, low-cost and make a huge difference.\r\n\r\nWith our society changing and the way our families work evolving, I think it\u2019s about time parents with different surnames to their kids were able to travel easily, without distress. Then all we\u2019d have to worry about is remembering to bring all the passports\u2026\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nPlease help me achieve this simple goal by signing my petition: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/en-GB\/petitions\/immigration-minister-james-brokenshire-give-parents-the-option-to-put-their-names-on-children-s-passports\">https:\/\/www.change.org\/en-GB\/petitions\/immigration-minister-james-brokenshire-give-parents-the-option-to-put-their-names-on-children-s-passports<\/a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h3><strong><em>Helen Perry, Mother and Founder of the Parental Passport Campaign<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.parentalpassportcampaign.org\">http:\/\/www.parentalpassportcampaign.org<\/a>\r\n\r\n@PassportReform\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.metro.us\/newyork\/news\/2013\/06\/13\/girl-passes-customs-with-passport-picturing-her-as-pink-unicorn\/\" target=\"_blank\">Featured Image<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getting the family ready to go on holiday can be stressful. Making sure everyone is out the house to the airport at 4am, remembering to lock the back door, ensuring you\u2019ve packed the requisite gallons of Factor 50, and, of course, making sure you have everyone\u2019s passports.\u00a0 But what happens if those passports cause problems","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3347,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-expert-early-learning-advice","category-great-family-life-tips"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Are modern families being discriminated against? | Living With Kids<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With our society changing and the way our families work evolving, I think it\u2019s about time parents with different surnames to their kids were able to travel easily, without distress. 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