When did “visitation” become “parenting time”?

In dealing with an issue up north, I was reading something that kept referring to "parenting time".  My first thought was that this was just this website's way of being kind and patronizing to non-custodial fathers parents. Further research showed me that not only is this now an official term, but it is used by other states as well.

This is ridiculous to me.  As a non-custodial parent of nearly 20 years (and counting) I'm more than sensitive and empathetic to the plight and sensitivities of those to whom this is direct.  But this is beyond silly.  What is this politically correct notion that you have to attempt to change the meanings of words to make someone feel better?  Do they really think that by calling it something different that it's actually going to affect the practice itself?  Of course it won't!  You can change the name of something, but it doesn't change what it is.  It's still visitation!

A non-custodial father visits his kids.  There's no other way to put it.  She has custody.   It's not really "parenting time" because you simply can't "parent" every other weekend.  You can't parent if you add one night a week and half the summer.

The irony of this whole renaming scheme is that by calling it parenting time they devalue another term that the political correctness crowd holds dear: "single parent".  They don't look at the term to mean "a parent that is single" but rather "a single who parents alone".  If a noncustodial now has "parenting time" rather than visitation, they they too "parent".  If two people parent, they aren't parenting alone now are they?  And if she's not parenting alone, "single parent" has lost much of its value and power as part of our lexicon.

There's another way this dilutes the term "single parent".  If a non-custodial parent (who has no children at home and isn't married) now has "parenting time", he must be, by definition, a single parent.

The problem with political correctness is that they want to have it both ways and they can't.  I won't allow it.

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