Custody & Parenting Time

Who gets the kids? Issues around child custody may be the biggest question facing divorcing parents!

Most parents want to ensure they have significant time with their children post-divorce. And this can be a source of tension and negotiation in a divorce process.

Family law assigns custody to parents in a variety of ways.

It’s common nowadays for parents to share time somewhat evenly, but the particular circumstances of the family need to be considered, and most important – what are the child’s needs and what will be best for the child post-divorce. However child custody works out, there are some important terms to know.

Joint legal custody means that both parents together make decisions regarding children’s education, health, religion and other major issues together. A divorced family can have joint legal custody even though the children primarily live with one parent.

Joint legal custody encourages communication between parents and respects the rights of both parents to have a say on important matters. For joint legal custody to work, divorced parents must maintain good communication.

Some attorneys refer to physical custody. This term is used to describe which parent is responsible for physically caring for the children on a daily basis. There is joint physical custody and primary (or sole) physical custody.

Joint physical custody describes a situation where both parents share a time and responsibility for their children; primary physical custody means one parent holds the majority of time with and responsibility for the children.

While parents may argue over these terms during the divorce process, at Transitions Legal, we urge our clients to focus on creating a parenting time schedule that is best for the children.

Parenting Time

Parenting Time is another potentially contentious part of divorce because it lays out where the children will be at different times.

The divorce process includes creating a plan for which parent has certain days, holidays, weekends, and general time with the children. It can also outline the rotation of significant days fairly.

Ideally, parents work together to maintain effective, post-divorce communication for the best situation for their children.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen; it is for those situations that a Parenting Time plan becomes a guide for the family.

When parents communicate well and put children’s interests first, post-divorce life can be smooth and stress-free. During the divorce process, spouses discuss how they’d like to arrange Parenting Time post-divorce.

Anything is possible; parenting time schedules are as unique as the people creating them.