Going Through A Divorce And Have Children? 4 Types Of Child Custody

If you are going through a divorce and have children, your spouse may or may not fight for custody. Even if you both agree on an arrangement, you should still hire a child custody attorney. This is because your spouse could easily change their mind in the future and you would have no legal reason to stop them. To help you, below are four types of custody you can choose from to help you get started with your new life.

Physical Custody

One type of child custody is known as physical custody. The parent that has physical custody will have the child living with them full-time with the other spouse seeing them on weekends, every other weekend, or whatever is set in the court documents. This generally works well if one spouse moves to another town and no longer lives close to you.

Legal Custody

Legal custody is the decisions you have to make when raising your children. For example, this may the school you choose for your children, their religion, the doctor you choose for them, and much more. If your spouse has legal custody you have to both agree on all decisions made when it comes to raising your child. This means you will have to contact your spouse before you make the decision and ask them if they agree. If they do not, you will both have to sit down with each other and talk it over until you can come to an agreement.

Joint Custody

With joint custody the children will live with you half the time and with your spouse half the time. This is not often recommended as it can be very hard on children. Constantly having to move from one house to another can be very stressful for them. Moving constantly also disrupts their lives. If you have joint custody the courts will likely make you and your spouse live in the same town also.

Split Custody

Split custody is when your children are split between their two parents. For example, one of your children will go with your spouse and the other child will stay with you. You will then swap the children after a certain amount of time. This means your children will not be together on a constant basis. Because of this, most judges will not recommend split custody.

Your attorney should help you come to the right decision on how to handle child custody for your children. Your attorney can also work with your spouse's attorney. Coming to a resolution quickly is best for the children.

Share