You think refusing him a Happy Meal took an emotional toll? Wait till your 4-year-old is hauled into court!
That’s the blunt message delivered to the Manhattan dad who sued a shrink for claiming he was an unfit parent because he refused to buy his son McDonald’s for dinner.
Judge Deborah Kaplan urged David Schorr to settle his custody battle with his estranged fashion-executive wife.
The judge threatened to haul the couple’s 4-year-old son Max into court — an experience that she said is psychologically damaging to kids — if the parents couldn’t agree on shared custody.
“I will speak for such a little guy — it’s really a terrible position to be in,” Kaplan said.
David, 43, an attorney who is representing himself, told the judge he would be willing to settle for two-to-four days of visitation with his son every month.
Wife Bari Schorr’s attorney asked for sole legal custody and decision-making authority for the boy citing the couple’s “opposite views” about parenting.
“That’s a shame for the child” said the judge, who gave the parties until the end of May to settle the case.
“Max should be, and is always for the court, the most important thing here,” Kaplan lectured to the bickering parents.
She told the Schorrs that the imposing columned courthouse at 60 Centre St. “looks like a fortress” to children. She proceeded to paint a horrific picture of the small boy being hustled through a metal detector by uninformed men with guns then having to gaze up at the building’s painted rotunda with its depictions of Moses, Hammurabi and Justinian — who resemble “monsters.”
The hellish trip would end with an interrogation by a woman in a black robe, the judge said.
“I hope I never have to meet your son,” she concluded.
Kaplan gave the parties until the end of May to work out an agreement.
Bari Schorr, 42, a vice president for the online shopping site Rue La La, had alerted the court-appointed psychiatrist when her son threw a temper tantrum because his dad wouldn’t give into his demands for greasy food.
The dad turned around and sued the shrink — who had advised the judge to deny him custody of Max—claiming the recommendation awarded bad behavior.
When asked if he had taken his son for fast food lately, David Schorr declined to comment.