Divorce can be one of the most challenging experiences that an individual or a family could ever go through in their life. A lot of serious decisions need to be made, many of them having to do with your children. In many circumstances, the parents can successfully raise their children in joint custody after the separation occurs. But what if that’s not in the best interest of the children? In many cases, one parent having complete parental rights is the best for a child’s development and overall well-being.
Choosing to fight for the sole parental rights of your children is not an easy choice to make. It can have a lot of repercussions once the parenting order is finalized. Exploring your options that have to do with requesting a parenting order for your child can be necessary, but it also should be considered very carefully. There are a lot of heightened emotions during a divorce or separation, which can lead to very drastic changes.
However, if you have made the decision to get sole custody, here are some things you should consider.
Think About What Is Best For Your Children
Usually, in family court, the judge will prefer joint parenting arrangements. If you will be requesting a parenting order, you need to prove that any other type of parenting arrangement would be detrimental for the children. This is more easily said than done.
Before you go further into a parenting order, it’s important to understand the difference between the different types of parenting time. These are:
Joint Parenting
Also referred to as physical parenting time. This type of custody refers to the parent’s right to live with their children for equal time. This arrangement will require some cooperation between parents and most judges prefer this arrangement if they are able to cooperate.
Sole Custody
Also referred to as legal parenting time, this gives the authority of custody to one parent to make all of the major decisions for their child. These decisions can include education, religion or health. When only one parent has a legal decision-making and parenting time, they will make all of the major decisions about how the child will be raised. The other parent can offer input, but the final decision will rest with one parent.
Joint Custody
Also referred to as joint parenting time, this kind of arrangement means that both parents are a part of the decision making process.
Usually during divorce or separation, emotions will be running very high. This leads to poor decision making that can hurt parenting order arrangements. Although it could be hard, you will need to put your emotions to the side to be able to think logically through the divorce process. All divorcing couples need to try to make at least joint parenting time work before they begin to look at other options.
Trying to obtain a parenting order out of spite or other negative emotions is not a good enough reason for the courts to give it to you.
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