What is Sole Custody? Legal Custody Joint vs. Child Custody and Support. Child Custody. Physical vs. Legal Custody. Joint vs. Interstate Child Custody. International Child Custody. Supervised Visitation. Grandparent Custody and Visitation. Child Custody Mediation. Parenting Agreements. Temporary Child Custody Orders. Preventing Child Abuse in a Custody Arrangement.
Child Support. Modifying Child Custody or Support. Enforcing a Child Custody or Support Order. If you believe the circumstances between you and your child's other parent make it impossible to share joint legal custody the other parent won't communicate with you about important matters or is abusive , you can go to court and ask for sole legal custody.
But, in many states, joint legal custody is preferred, so you will have to convince a family court judge that it is not in the best interests of your child. One parent can have either sole legal custody or sole physical custody of a child.
Courts generally won't hesitate to award sole physical custody to one parent if the other parent is deemed unfit -- for example, because of alcohol or drug dependency or charges of child abuse or neglect.
However, in most states, courts are moving away from awarding sole custody to one parent and toward enlarging the role both parents play in their children's lives. Even where courts do award sole physical custody, the parties often still share joint legal custody, and the noncustodial parent enjoys a generous visitation schedule.
In these situations, the parents would make joint decisions about the child's upbringing, but one parent would be deemed the primary physical caretaker, while the other parent would have visitation rights under a parenting agreement or schedule.
It goes without saying that there may be animosity between you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse. But it's best not to seek sole custody unless the other parent truly causes direct harm to the children. Even then, courts may still allow the other parent supervised visitation. Joint custody can exist if the parents are divorced, separated, or no longer cohabiting, or even if they never lived together.
Joint custody may be:. When parents share joint custody, they usually work out a schedule according to their work requirements, housing arrangements and the children's needs. If the parents cannot agree on a schedule, the court will impose an arrangement. A common pattern is for children to split weeks between each parent's house or apartment. Other joint physical custody arrangements include:.
There is even a joint custody arrangement where the children remain in the family home and the parents take turns moving in and out, spending their out time in separate housing of their own.
This is commonly called "bird's nest custody" or "nesting. Joint custody has the advantages of assuring the children continuing contact and involvement with both parents.
And it alleviates some of the burdens of parenting for each parent. J Epidemiol Community Health. Clark B. Supporting the mental health of children and youth of separating parents. Paediatr Child Health.
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I Accept Show Purposes. Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. Child's Best Interest. Types of Court Ordered Custody. Pros and Cons of Joint Custody. When It Works Best. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Sign Up. What are your concerns? Verywell Family uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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