After a divorce, parents can discuss their child custody options. Child custody will help determine each parent’s responsibilities they have to their children and how often they see their children.
Custody is divided up into physical and legal custody. Physical custody is a parent’s responsibility to provide food, shelter, clothing and other basic needs while their child stays with them. Legal custody is a parent’s right to decide how their children are raised. This could include deciding whether a child would go to public or private school, have a religious upbringing or under surgery for a disability.
There are several custody option to learn about:
Joint custody
Parents can share responsibilities after a divorce through joint custody. Joint custody allows each co-parent to have some split physical and legal custody rights. Parents can work together to decide a custody schedule and expectations for how their children are raised. Typically, co-parents will communicate often to help ensure each parent’s obligations are met and any difficulties are addressed.
If co-parenting does not work, parents can still share custody though parallel parenting. Parallel parenting is often used with parents who have high-conflict interactions with their co-parent. Parallel parenting limits how often parents communicate with each other. This can give parents more autonomy and reduce arguments.
Sole custody
If a parent is not fit to raise their children or does not wish to raise their children, the other parent may have sole custody. Sole custody gives a parent full custody rights and responsibilities. The other parent may have some visitation obligations, but their rights are otherwise limited.
Parents can learn more about their child custody options by reaching out for legal help.
