| Alex
Fir, Fri Dec 9th
After a marriage is over and you have custody of your children,you
will have the responsibility for making the importantdecisions
about your children's upbringing and schooling.
In the majority of cases, the other parent still
has a right tospend some time with the children. Keep in mind,
the law saysthat there should be as much contact as possible with
bothparents as is best for the children. However, in seriouscircumstances,
a judge could decide that it is in the children'sbest interests
not to spend time with the other parent.
If you do not have custody, generally, you will
have a right tospend time with your children. A parent with access
usually hasrights to:
- spend time with the children, such as on a weekday
evening, onweekends and on holidays; and - receive information
about thechildren -- news about their health and well-being and
about howthey are doing at school.
As a parent with access rights, you can ask the
court to orderthe other parent to give you advance notice--at
least 30days--if he or she intends to move the children to another
home.
You can lose your access rights or they can be
limited. Forinstance, if you do not follow the court order or
if you act ina way that is harmful to your children, the court
can decide tochange the access arrangements.
There is also joint custody. Sometimes a husband
and wife want adivorce, but want to continue to share their responsibilities
asparents equally.
Joint custody means that both of you have custody
of thechildren. In other words, you both continue to share in
makingall the major decisions concerning the children. If there
isjoint custody, many different living arrangements are possible.The
children may live with each parent about the same amount oftime
or live mostly with one parent.
Not many parents go to trial about custody. Proceedings
can beexpensive and stressful both for you and for the children.
Youhave choices other than going to court to reach agreements
onparenting arrangements.
- You can go to a family mediator. A mediator
is generally aperson with a legal or social work background who
has specialtraining in helping people resolve disputes. A mediator
workswith both of you and helps you discuss and decide on thearrangements
for your children. - You can meet with a lawyer whowill explain
your legal rights and obligations and help younegotiate an agreement.
- You can meet with a family therapist,child psychologist, social
worker, family doctor or otherprofessional who knows about the
effects of separation anddivorce on children of different ages.
Many courts now offer parent-education sessions,
which presentoptions for settling the issues you face upon separation
anddivorce. These sessions also discuss the impact of separationand
divorce on children.
About the author:Visit Divorce HelpCenter for more divorceinformation
and latest news.
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