Divorce cases involving children can be complex. If your child is an infant, custody cases can be more complicated. In cases involving infants, custody was traditionally given to the mother by the courts in the past. The courts now give every parent a chance to gain custody. To determine custody, the courts will consider each parent’s relationship to the infant, their home environment, income, and other factors. For most families, the best outcome is for parents to agree to a custody arrangement.
HOW DO YOU MAKE A CUSTODY AGREEMENT?
California courts encourage parents to make their own parenting plans before submitting the matter to the courts. Your family can avoid an emotionally draining and lengthy divorce trial by creating their own plan. A parenting plan can help parents to come to an agreement and co-parent their child after a divorce. A parenting plan is made up of two parts: decision making and time-sharing. Time-share describes the time each parent spends with their child. Decision making refers the legal capacity to make important decisions about the child’s education, health, and religion.
Your spouse and you must collaborate to create your parenting plan. The plan must include details about each holiday and how you will care for your infant. To help you create a plan that is both fair and works for you, an attorney can be consulted. An attorney can help you to understand the unique aspects of the custody agreement due to the infant’s young age. After you and your spouse have reached an agreement, you must sign it and then bring it to court. It should be signed by the judge. Then, you will file it with court to become a custody or visit order.
POPULAR CUSTODY ARRANGEMENTS – INFANTS
An arrangement for custody involving an infant is different than one that involves older children. Infants require more care than older children, such as breastfeeding, sleeping through the night, changing diapers, and teething. For example, if you are breastfeeding your child, you might need to switch to formula or start pumping so that you can spend more time with your baby. While every family is different, there are some key elements that have helped couples to achieve success in the past.
- Maximizing your parental time with the infant. Your parenting time should be arranged around your work schedules so the infant is always with one parent.
- Partitioning parenting time equally. It is important to share your parenting time equally with the infant, as it is essential for them to have contact with both parents. This will reduce separation anxiety.
- Slowly go into overnight visits. You might consider having one parent watch the infant at night while the other is there during the day. This will help the infant become more flexible and independent.
- Consistency is key. It doesn’t matter what arrangement you have, it is important to be consistent with your parenting time. Routines are something infants can depend on and that they benefit from.
- You can change things as your child grows. Many parents find it advantageous to change a custody order when their child gets older or needs change.
A custody agreement that is tailored to an infant’s needs is not possible. There is no one-size-fits all approach. Your co-parent and you will need to meet, discuss your concerns, examine each parent’s schedule, and come up with a compromise plan that is best for your child. Keep an open mind, remember that your child’s best interest are paramount and that you will sacrifice time to allow your child to spend more time with your spouse.
Summarized from an article by Boyd Law.
