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Posted on: 11 August 2022

Divorcing parents need information about their parenting choices. The below child custody plans are just a sample of the many available. If you don't see a child custody plan that suits both of you, you can make your own plan. Read on and choose your child custody plan by reviewing the plans that many couples choose.

Legal and Physical Custody

Before getting into the custody plans, become familiar with the terms:

Legal custody: This is usually shared between both parents. Legal custody gives the parent the right to make major decisions concerning the child, such as religious upbringing, healthcare matters, discipline, and more. Unless one of the parents is deemed unfit, both parents will share legal custody of the children of the marriage. Judges will only remove the legal custody of one parent if they are incarcerated, addicted, mentally incapacitated, abusive, etc.

Physical custody: One party may be appointed as the main physical caregiver of the child under certain custody arrangements. However, both parties retain legal custody even if the child lives primarily with one parent most of the time. The idea of physical custody is to keep the child stable in a single home environment, preferably with the parent they have been receiving most of their care from. Sole physical custody can be connected to other divorce issues like fault and who gets the family home as well as child support.

2 Common Custody Arrangements

Joint custody with visitation: This form of custody is used often and works well for many parents. One parent will have primary physical custody of the child for most of the time. The non-custodial parent will visit with the child when they have a visitation scheduled. Visitation can be as restrictive or as generous as the parents like. The child will have a base at one home and visit their other parent on weekends, holidays, vacations, after-school hours, and so on. Visitation should be planned with an eye toward the child spending as much time as possible with the non-custodial parent.

Shared or 50/50 custody: As you can guess from the name, this form of custody is about slicing up the child's time by approximately half with each parent. This can work better for older children who are not as disrupted by going back and forth. Visitation is not part of this parenting plan since both parents see the child 50 percent (more or less) of the time already.

To learn about other custody choices, speak to a child custody attorney.