Harold Douglas: Basics of Child Custody

Few divorce decisions are as emotionally fraught as those involving custody of minor children. Divorcing spouses who agree on other issues can quickly reach an impasse where children are involved.

Too often, protracted custody battles are thinly disguised attempts to manipulate support obligations , deny equal parental rights, or alienate a child from a non-custodial parent.

While you and your spouse can make custody agreements and visitation arrangements on your own, litigated custody disputes turn those decisions over to a judge who does not know your family. As one of the best family law firm in Utah, our practice daily handles tough custody cases for clients from all walks of life. These parents retain us to fight for the best interests of their children—and for their future. You should make sure you get a child custody lawyer to help you whenever you have an issue like this come up.

Two questions to be addressed concern legal and physical custody, defined as follows:

Legal custody is the right to make or be involved in major decisions concerning your child on matters of health, education, and welfare
Physical custody is the right for a child to reside with you and receive your physical care

Along with recommendations from the law guardian for your child, a judge will review best interest factors to make a physical custody decision that may look like one of the following:

Sole custody with one custodial parent, and one parent receiving visitation rights
Joint physical custody where a child resides with both parents—not necessarily for equal periods of time

Childhood is brief, but its scars can last a lifetime. If you have custody issues, retain a skilled attorney and fight for your child while you can still make a difference.

How Does Remarriage Affect Older Children?

Many people expect there to be some growing pains when getting remarried with minor children in the picture. However, many of these same transitional and emotional issues can also be a factor if you or your spouse have any older children.

While older children are going to be better able to emotionally process the transition, they are still human and still could very well have complicated feelings about the marriage. You should be prepared to notice and address any of the following issues:

Strong loyalty to their “original” family: Your adult children will want to maintain a strong family identity. This means it can be difficult to immediately accept a new stepparent and everything that comes with it, including uprooting long-established family traditions, celebrations and holidays.
Feelings of homesickness: While your adult children no longer live at home with you, there is still something that might be lost to them in the transition, beyond your relationship. To them, going home might no longer feel like they’re actually at home, and that can be difficult to process at first. They will miss the feelings of the home they knew as children, with both of their parents living in it together.
Difficulty managing time with grandchildren: You might find that your children harbor some feelings of resentment that their children, your grandchildren, will suddenly have to welcome a new face into their life, or that time has to be split even more broadly among grandparents.
Jealousy: Even adult children are susceptible to feeling jealous, or as though they’ve been “replaced” by a new spouse. Suddenly a new stepparent comes in and has captured your heart and energy — it’s natural for them to feel jealous.

Free Consultation with Child Custody Lawyer

If you have a question about child custody question or if you need to collect back child support, please call Ascent Law at (801) 676-5506. We will help you.