Month: July 2020

When some people finally start talking about divorce, it comes as a relief. They realize that it’s something that they have wanted for a long time, but they were just delaying taking that step.

Why do they do it? The reasons are different for everyone, of course, but many people do it so that they don’t upset their lifestyle. It’s not just about the relationship. It’s about everything that goes along with it.

For instance, one woman found out her husband had been seeing someone else, but she convinced herself to stay in her marriage for another six years. She later admitted that she wished she had just been stronger and asked for a divorce at the time. The reasons she didn’t included:

• They had three children together
• They owned a home
• They had once been in love
• Her husband wasn’t abusive in any way

Essentially, she was just trying to preserve the life that they had previously had together. She enjoyed that stability. She wanted her kids to stay in a two-parent family with a “happy” marital home and a “normal” life. She even noted that she didn’t worry about not being married personally, but she was just trying to keep that lifestyle together. For many people, it just feels like that is what they are supposed to do and they don’t want to upset the balance.

It can be hard to break this mindset, but you don’t want to stay in a marriage too long and regret it later. If it is time to get divorced, make sure you know what steps to take. An attorney can help you understand more about the process and where to get started.

Divorce is difficult for both parents and children. No one involved planned to change how the family would interact and function.

Children can have an especially difficult time. Even young children can feel like their opinion is not considered when it is time to decide whom they will live with and how often they get to see the other parent.

Here’s what the court will consider when it comes to your children’s preference regarding custody.

Concern for children

While often resilient, children can be fragile beings. Even when children do not express it outwardly, they want their parents to be happy with them and their choices.

The court recognizes that children can be easily manipulated, even when the parents do not intend to influence their opinion. Testifying in a divorce proceeding can also be very difficult for children since they will often feel like one parent is asking them to choose sides over the other.

When children are young, the court looks almost exclusively at the child’s best interests when deciding custody or conservatorship. Parents will need to show their ability to care for their children and on what grounds one should have conservatorship over the other.

Age matters

As children get older and more capable of expressing their thoughts and opinions, the court gives their opinion more weight. While a small child may want to live with one parent or another because of certain toys or more relaxed rules, an older child will be able to articulate that they have common interests with a specific or that one parent has a more stable living environment.

Once children reach the age of 12, the court begins to consider the child’s opinion, and as they age, that opinion receives more weight than the other factors. Ultimately, the court will look to the child’s best interest, even if that conflicts with the child’s preference.

Many fathers feel frustrated when they are trying to gain custody of their children. Due to negative experiences and struggles to successfully gain custody, proponents of father’s rights believe that the legal system is biased toward mothers.

While the movement itself is known to be controversial, the general purpose is to help fathers to be treated equally in the child custody process. If you are a father and you are worried that the courts will presume that the children will be better cared for when in the custody of their mother, you should make sure that you are aware of your rights as well as some of the issues that the father’s rights movement tries to resolve.

Shared parenting over sole custody

Over recent years, shared parenting has become more popular when the parents of a child are not in a relationship. Child custody courts tend to advocate for shared custody when neither parent poses a risk to the child. The father’s rights movement has argued that shared parenting should always be presumed to be in the best interests of the child.

False claims of abuse and child custody

Many proponents of father’s rights are concerned that family courts are too influenced by false claims of abuse. An accusation of abuse can mean that the custody rights of the alleged abuser could be taken away, but only after a thorough investigation is undertaken.

If you want to make sure that you’ll be able to maintain a relationship with your child after divorce or separation, you should be proactive in your approach to gaining custody of your child.