Whether your children are toddlers or teens, the best gift divorcing parents can give them is a cooperative parenting plan that allows them to spend a maximum amount of time with each parent.
MASSACHUSETTS CHILD CUSTODY
In Massachusetts, child custody is divided into legal custody (which parent will decide where they will attend school, who will provide their medical care and how matters involving their moral or religious development will be handled) and physical custody – often called the parenting plan – which simply provides when the child with be cared for by each parent.
CHILD’S BEST INTERESTS
If you were married, the Probate & Family Court in Massachusetts will presume that during the course of your marriage, you and your spouse made legal custody decisions jointly and that you can continue to do so. The Court will then consider the child’s best interests in determining where the child should reside – in your home or your partner’s, or split time between the two.
If you and your child’s other parent were never married, the mother will automatically have legal custody to begin with, but this is often changed to shared custody, and can be done so by agreement. If the Court is involved, the child’s best interests will still determine which of you s/he should be with a majority of the time or whether this time should be shared.
MEDIATION – CHILD CUSTODY
At Newburyport Family Law, we recommend our clients consider three parenting plans: the first being a ‘regular’ week-to-week schedule, the second being a schedule for holidays and the last being a schedule for vacation time. Many of our clients share regular time, alternating weekends from Friday to Monday with one parent providing care from Monday to Wednesday and the other parent providing care from Wednesday to Friday. We also recommend parties consider alternating holidays instead of trying to share them. This is usually in the children’s best interests, so they do not have to leave gatherings with one family halfway through a holiday to be transported to the other family’s celebration. Lastly, since children often have more vacation time than their parents, we recommend alternating mid-winter and spring vacations and allowing for several uninterrupted weeks over the summer, not to conflict with summer camp and other activities.
In our experience, parents who put their children first, ahead of their own preferences, have happier children and more congenial co-parenting plans.
As always, we recommend mediation and the collaborative process to parents wishing to work these matters out without Court intervention.
For more information, visit our pages on Child Custody.