Online Divorce And Joint Custody

Divorce is traumatic for the entire family. It is a dreaded situation, often put off for years. Many times, the reason for the delay is attributed to the children. Understandably, parents don’t want to disrupt the lives of their children.

Joint custody of the children is an option more and more parents are choosing, as a means to make their transition to the changes in home life easier. Opting for joint custody from the beginning is much easier than requesting it after the divorce has been finalized.

Joint custody is not recommended in every divorce situation. Ideally it works best when there are young children involved or when both parents live reasonably close to each other. In both of these cases changing schools in the middle of the year is never an issue, which needs to be dealt with.

Joint custody only works when both parents are cooperative with each other and can be flexible, as well. There will always be issues to deal with such as scheduling and discipline. Those things should not be the sole responsibility of the parent of which the children currently reside.

It is best to begin working out a joint custody plan as soon as you can, after the decision to divorce has been made. This way, you have time to completely discuss and map out a schedule that best benefits everyone involved.

There are actually three types of custody in regard to this kind of arrangement, shared, joint and split custody. Shared custody usually identifies one parent as the actual custodial parent. The other parent has the children thirty to forty percent of the time.

Joint custody occurs when equal custody is given to each parent. There are times when only joint legal custody is granted. In cases such as this, both parents have equal say regarding legal issues. But, one parent has physical custody of the children for most of the year.

In a split custody situation there is usually some sort of fixed schedule involved. As an example, the children could reside with one parent three days per week and the other parent four days per week.

Joint custody is probably not a good idea if one parent works very long hours or has never been that involved in the lives of the children. Joint custody does not automatically make a once involved parent into the parent of the year. Once you have come to a custody agreement, it is up to the judge to make the final decision in the matter.


Share and Enjoy:
  • OnlyWire
  • Socialize-It
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Furl
  • StumbleUpon
  • Propeller
  • YahooMyWeb
  • Reddit
  • Slashdot
  • Ma.gnolia
  • RawSugar
  • Sphinn
  • blogmarks
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • MisterWong
  • PlugIM
  • Pownce
  • Technorati
  • TwitThis

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments are closed.