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Enjoy our article below on colorado divorce forms to help you learn about your divorce and plan accordingly.
Taking Care Of Children After Divorce
By Alex Fir, Fri Dec 9th
After a marriage is over and you have custody of your children,you will have the responsibility for making the importantdecisions about your children's upbringing and schooling. In the majority of cases, the other parent still has a right tospend some time with the children. Keep in mind, the law saysthat there should be as much contact as possible with bothparents as is best for the children. However, in seriouscircumstances, a judge could decide that it is in the children'sbest interests not to spend time with the other parent. If you do not have custody, generally, you will have a right tospend time with your children. A parent with access usually hasrights to:
- spend time with the children, such as on a weekday evening, onweekends and on holidays; and - receive information about thechildren -- news about their health and well-being and about howthey are doing at school. As a parent with access rights, you can ask the court to orderthe other parent to give you advance notice--at least 30days--if he or she intends to move the children to another home. You can lose your access rights or they can be limited. Forinstance, if you do not follow the court order or if you act ina way that is harmful to your children, the court can decide tochange the access arrangements. There is also joint custody. Sometimes a husband and wife want adivorce, but want to continue to share their responsibilities asparents
equally. Joint custody means that both of you have custody of thechildren. In other words, you both continue to share in makingall the major decisions concerning the children. If there isjoint custody, many different living arrangements are possible.The children may live with each parent about the same amount oftime or live mostly with one parent. Not many parents go to trial about custody. Proceedings can beexpensive and stressful both for you and for the children. Youhave choices other than going to court to reach agreements onparenting arrangements. - You can go to a family mediator. A mediator is generally aperson with a legal or social work background who has specialtraining in helping people resolve disputes. A mediator workswith both of you and helps you discuss and decide on thearrangements for your children. - You can meet with a lawyer whowill explain your legal rights and obligations and help younegotiate an agreement. - You can meet with a family therapist,child psychologist, social worker, family doctor or otherprofessional who knows about the effects of separation anddivorce on children of different ages. Many courts now offer parent-education sessions, which presentoptions for settling the issues you face upon separation anddivorce. These sessions also discuss the impact of separationand on children. About the author:Visit Divorce HelpCenter for more divorceinformation and latest news.
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