A New Jersey father said his ex-wife's trip to a Pink concert with their daughter constituted "bad parenting." File photo by UPI/ Rune Hellestad | License Photo

OCEAN COUNTY, N.J., April 26 (UPI) -- A New Jersey judge has ruled that a mother's decision to take her 11-year-old daughter to a Pink concert is not "bad parenting."

The unidentified girl's father claimed that his ex-wife had exposed their daughter to inappropriate song lyrics and "sexually suggestive" dancing when she took the girl to a Pink concert in 2013.


But Ocean County Judge Superior Court Judge Lawrence R. Jones ruled that the girl's mother had the right to determine what's best for her child while they are together.

"Each parent has a basic constitutional right and ability to exercise reasonable discretion on child-related issues during his or her own parenting time, so long as such choices do not unreasonably compromise the child's general health, safety and welfare," Jones said.

Jones said he consulted the girl, who was a Pink fan, and found that she had enjoyed the show.

"When all the smoke from the custody litigation clears, it will be self-evident that all which happened here is that a young girl went to her first rock concert with her mother and had a really great time," he added.

Jones also chided "warring ex-spouses" for using the family court system to resolve small differences about child-rearing.

"In a great many of these circumstances, the dispute actually boils down to one parent, or sometimes each parent, attempting to micromanage how the other parent raises the child during his or her own parenting time," Jones said.