If you have children, an attorney can help you to navigate
through the choppy waters of a custody dispute.
Going through a divorce is never easy and when children are involved it
is even more complicated. Instead of
being able to simply divide your assets there are important decisions to be
made that will impact your life, and the life of your child, until they turn
eighteen.
While married, there are simple day to day decisions that
are made about your children without really thinking about them. Things like transportation to and from
school, visiting the grandparents, attending family birthday parties, and
buying new shoes are simply things that are done – rather than discussed. Once divorced, these things are no longer
simple. That is why the court requires a
thorough parenting plan to be written that makes allowances for these normal
life activities.
As an attorney we ask our clients to start thinking about
the following and consider how they would want to handle them:
·
Schooling. Where do you want your child to attend
school, both now and in the future? Your
parenting plan can specify this along with whether the decision is made by one
parent, or both.
·
Transportation. Who is responsible for transporting the
children to and from school or to and from one parents’ house to the
other? When it comes to exchanging the
children, drop off days, times, and locations can all be specified.
·
Special
Occasions. Consider every day or
event that you deem to be a special occasion and specify where the children are
(what parent they are with) on each of those days. This will obviously include major holidays, but
there are other family events that should be taken into consideration. For example, list the birthday for every
family member that is involved in the children’s lives. If you don’t list your Grandma and the
children are supposed to be with your ex-spouse that day, they will probably be
unable to go to your Grandma’s birthday party.
It is better to be thorough.
·
Clothing. Will each parent to be responsible for
purchasing the children clothing that is worn at their house or is one parent
going to buy all of their clothes with the other one reimbursing them? Consider how you want to handle this so that
there is no confusion.
·
Toys. The children probably have a lot of toys that
were accumulated throughout the course of your marriage. Who gets to keep what at their house? If you don’t specify, the spouse keeping your
primary home may get all of the toys with it.
As an experienced attorney, we can help you to sort through
these issues as part of your divorce and help you to sort through disputes
after the fact. Even if your divorce has
been settled, you can go back and revise custody issues at a later date. For more information or a consultation give
us a call, and we will be happy to assist you.
