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Child Custody Checklist Created by Our Stockton Child Custody Law Firm
There are a lot of factors that go into determining the best child custody plan for your child. It is often helpful to work through points of potential contention before sitting down to hash out custody arrangements with your spouse. While not exhaustive, our team of Central Valley and Stockton child custody attorneys has created the following child custody checklist to help you begin to frame the issues that could arise in your particular circumstances.
Custody Issue #1: Where will your child live?
Where each parent resides will play a crucial role in determining child custody living arrangements. If you and your spouse live near each other, you may want to consider a shared custody scenario where your child goes back and forth between homes. On the other hand, if one parent plans to move, you may want to make one home the primary residence, particularly during the school year. Answering these questions will be helpful when considering where your child will live:
- Will you and your spouse remain in the child’s current school district?
- How could moving schools impact your child’s emotional, academic, and social well-being?
- What is your child’s temperament (e.g., How important are things like routine, consistency, being close to friends and other family members?)
Custody Issue #2: What will be the arrangements for birthdays, holidays, and school breaks?
How holidays, birthdays, and vacations are handled is often a great source of conflict between parents trying to establish a child custody arrangement. To the extent possible, our child custody lawyers encourage you to try to resolve these types of issues at the outset.
- Which holidays are the most important to you and your extended family?
- What are the dates each holiday arrangement will begin and end?
- For holidays like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, is it just the day that is included or the entire weekend?
- How do you plan to handle birthdays? Who will host the parties and who will attend?
- If you are on a normal rotation and the holiday schedule interferes with that routine, how will you handle it?
- Do either of you engage in religious observances that you want your child to participate in? If so, how will those be scheduled?
- When it comes to planning extended trips for summer or spring break, for example, how much notice should each party be given and how much input should each of you have in the arrangements?
Custody Issue #3: What kind of agreements can you make regarding communicating about your child?
Some couples remain on excellent terms, even after a split. Others have trouble getting along. Regardless of how you feel about each other, are you able to agree on some rules regarding communicating about your child?
- How often will you and your spouse touch base about the child and what methods of communication will you use (e.g., text, email, phone calls)?
- If one of you wishes to make a change to the agreed-upon custody schedule, how much notice should each of you give the other?
- What are the types of issues that should require the consent of both parents? What types of issues can be resolved by each parent unilaterally?
Contact Our Central Valley and Stockton Child Custody Attorneys Today
To set up a consultation with one of the Central Valley and Stockton child custody attorneys at McKinley, Conger, Jolley & Galarneau, LLP, please reach out to us online.
