Child Custody & Parenting Time
The laws and rules regarding child custody and visitation rights vary according to your state of residence. Most states view joint custody situations, where parents have near-equal time with the children as being the best arrangement for families in which domestic violence, substance abuse, and/or psychological or emotional problems are not an issue.
Joint legal custody is when both parents share equally in the decision-making about each child’s academic education, health care needs, religious education and extracurricular activities. Joint physical custody means both parents spend an equal amount of time in the daily care of the child. Usually this arrangement means that the child spends an equal amount of time living at mom’s house and at dad’s house.
Often, the state will want spouses to come up with an agreed-upon parenting time plan or parenting calendar, which charts the course for a full year’s worth of parenting time and helps families figure out a birthday, vacation and holiday schedule ahead of time.
Sometimes, sole custody is necessary to protect the children from an abusive situation — ;usually from a parent that is physically abusive, addicted to drugs or alcohol, or has severe mental health problems and cannot safely care for his or her children.
Even in cases where one parent has sole custody, the non-custodial parent often has visitation rights, and is still able to spend time with the children on a set schedule.
During the divorce proceedings, spouses will want to come up with a parenting plan that meets both parents’ needs and that puts the best interests of the child at the heart of the schedule. As with any aspect of divorce, if this issue causes contention between you and your spouse, having a third party assist you — ;maybe a mediator or an attorney — can help you devise a parenting plan that works for the whole family and still meets the requirements of the state’s child custody rules. ;
