Who received custody and took care of their children most of the time after divorce?

In divorces, it was a part of alimony, which made it tax deductible. So paternity cases, it was left up to the interpretation of the court, or a jury.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

I don't have any statistics, but it seems that me and my co workers all wound up with the kids after the divorce. The women all wanted to "be free" or some such BS. I see more and more single dads. This trend has been growing for over 20 years now! I even used to trade baby sitting with a former employee. Child care is a frequent subject among male workers. What do child support laws do for us?

If you're really interested in this, here are a couple links:

http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/whm/tri...

http://www.childsupportanalysis.co.uk/information_...

The first one is a brief overview of the first case in the U.S. to establish the concept of "best interests of the child": before that (1813), the children were always considered the property of the father. So that's custody.

The second one is a chart with the history of child support--presumably in cases where the fathers did not assert their right of custody (before 1813). Basically it talks about how child support laws started as a way for communities to recover the costs of providing for impoverished mothers and their children.

Prior to the 1980s, custody of children (especially young ones) was often granted to the mother. This was called the "Tender Years Doctrine." Now, this has changed in most jurisdictions, giving mother and father equal footing to pursue custody based on the child's best interests.

"Family" court is deeply biased against men. But the MRAs are working on changing that by lobbying State legislative bodies to pass laws that make the a priori assumption of custody be that of dual custody. That is, the courts are instructed to assume that it is in the best interests of the child for joint custody, unless there is actual evidence otherwise. Needless to say, NOW and other femi-bigot organizations are lobbying intensely to stop this.

Women.

what time in history?

women have always gotten the kids no matter what.

women and they still do. Guys bounce from county to county and take jobs that pay cash to avoid paying child support. The kids grow up to hate them. They prefer to be more like women than the man they were jilted by.