Going through a child custody case requires you to make a lot of decisions. In each of these decisions, you have to decide what is best for your child. One of the decisions that you and your ex have to make is what type of custody will govern the arrangement. Here are some points to remember about child custody types.
You will have to decide who has physical custody of the child. This means the parent who is going to have the child live with him or her. Many people think that physical custody will defer to the mother, but this isn’t the case. Fathers do have a right to have physical custody of the child if this is in the child’s best interests.
In some cases, parents will share physical custody of the child. This can include an even split, such as what happens in shared parenting. It also occurs in parenting models like co-parenting. No matter what type of physical custody arrangement you have, you will also have to decide who has legal custody of the children.
Legal custody has to do with who makes decisions for the child. This includes medical, educational and other similar decisions. Just like with physical custody, there are various different ways that legal custody can be set. It is imperative that the actual agreement is relayed in detail in the child custody agreement so that there aren’t any misconceptions about who is making which decisions.
Your child custody agreement has to be an individualized plan that you and your ex will follow. Just remember that you can alter the agreement if there are issues that make that necessary in the future.
Source: FindLaw, “The Various Types of Child Custody,” accessed Dec. 08, 2017