Who’s the Best Interest? The Child or Yours?
Everyone knows someone who suffers the torments of hell during their divorce proceeding. In most instances, these catastrophic divorces could be pulled off sensibly and without much fuss if parents of minor children could be more focused on giving the best interest of the children the highest priority.
In divorce proceedings in which children are involved, and custody and visitation are issues, the court will take into account a number of factors in resolving the issues of custody and visitation, but all in all, the court will not lose sight of what’s in the "best interest of the child", and neither should you.
Determining the type of custody is a big task. There are a number of different ways parents can share custody and these as categorized as "legal" custody and "physical" custody, both of which can be held solely or jointly. Joint custody involves both parents sharing responsibility and authority with respect to the children; it may involve joint "legal" custody and joint "physical" custody. Such includes physical sharing of the child in addition to both parents participating in decisions affecting the child’s life, for example education, medical problems, and recreation. It is important to understand that "joint custody" does not necessarily mean fifty-fifty sharing of time, since each case depends on the court’s evaluation of a number of determinative factors.
Some of the factors that the court will evaluate in determining which parent is more "fit" to take on custody, or if custody is to be shared, how the parents are to share it, include the child’s age and health, the quality of the child’s education, the environment and living arrangements, the parent’s ability to provide the child with necessities such as food, clothing, and other essentials, as well as the parent’s ability to provide the child with his or her time.
If you are divorcing and you have children, the most important task is to make arrangements with your spouse regarding custody and visitation. So no matter how angry you are, never forget to put the child’s best interest before yours. After all, the arrangements which you set today, will pave the path for their future.