Child Custody Arrangements Essay
In today’s society child custody arrangements are becoming more common. There are plenty of times when an unavoidable circumstances occur, which leads to a child custody arrangement. In this paper I will discuss the child custody arrangements in the United States. Let’s begin with what child custody is exactly. According to a website called About the Children describes child custody as “are the legal terms used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and child, including e.g. the right of the parent to make decisions for the child and the duty to care for the child. As previously stated - child custody is determined by assuring that what is being proposed/decided is in the best interest of the child”.( About the
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Both parties involved in the custody hearing get to argue their point. It is up to judge to decide where the children should go based off their best interest. According to our textbook there are primarily two main sources of child custody; physical and legal custody. Physical custody is defined as: “refers to how much time a child spends with each parent. If parents share physical custody, the child lives with each parent some of the time. For example, an 8-year-old may live with his mother most of the time but he may stay with his father every Wednesday and Thursday, every other weekend, and most of the summer” (Costanzo & Krauss, 2012, pg 236). Whereas, legal custody is defined as “concerns the rights and responsibilities of parents. For example, a parent with legal custody has the authority to decide which school a child should attend and what religious training (if any) the child will receive. If medical care is needed, that parent will make treatment decisions (Costanzo & Krauss, 2012, pg 236). There can be times where there is a joint legal custody agreement too. That is where decisions are primarily made between both parents. When one parent has for example an addiction problem etc the other parent may seek sole custody of the child. This is when the competent parent had both legal and physical
Both parties involved in the custody hearing get to argue their point. It is up to judge to decide where the children should go based off their best interest. According to our textbook there are primarily two main sources of child custody; physical and legal custody. Physical custody is defined as: “refers to how much time a child spends with each parent. If parents share physical custody, the child lives with each parent some of the time. For example, an 8-year-old may live with his mother most of the time but he may stay with his father every Wednesday and Thursday, every other weekend, and most of the summer” (Costanzo & Krauss, 2012, pg 236). Whereas, legal custody is defined as “concerns the rights and responsibilities of parents. For example, a parent with legal custody has the authority to decide which school a child should attend and what religious training (if any) the child will receive. If medical care is needed, that parent will make treatment decisions (Costanzo & Krauss, 2012, pg 236). There can be times where there is a joint legal custody agreement too. That is where decisions are primarily made between both parents. When one parent has for example an addiction problem etc the other parent may seek sole custody of the child. This is when the competent parent had both legal and physical