Most often, there are couples asking their family lawyers how to best protect their children or prevent their ex-spouse from taking the child out of state, county, or even the country. These clients usually want their ex’s to share a pleasant relationship with their child but never at the cost of their personal relationship.
Whenever parents stop living with each other, their toughest point of disagreement usually involves their children. For both the parents and children, it’s best if they agree on their own about visitation and custody. However, this doesn’t happen often. If you live in Houston, Texas, this is the time when you might need to get help from a Houston family attorney to resolve matters before they get worse.
Child Custody Facts to Keep in Mind
- Living arrangements can be made out of the court
As per laws, children are allowed to live with one parent and also visit the other parent or keep switching back and forth. These arrangements are usually decided by the court but this doesn’t always have to be the fact. In case you and your ex are on talking terms and you can agree on where the child will live or set a visitation schedule, you wouldn’t require a court order to come to an agreement through mediation.
- You can’t force a parent to parent your child
There are a few situations where one parent is immensely desperate to make the other partner remain an active parent. The ex-partner, on the other hand, seems to be okay with not seeing the child ever again. You can’t forget the fact that you can’t force an ex-parent to parent your child. In case the parent prefers not to stay in touch with the children, they have full right to do so.
- Child visitation and child support are not correlated
Is your ex preventing you from visiting your children? If yes, this doesn’t mean you’ll be okay with skipping on child support payments. Similarly, you even can’t choose to keep your children at home and not let the other parent meet him only because he’s delinquent with his payments. Visiting your child and child support aren’t correlated – they’re separate things.
- Claiming a parent to be a drug addict cant’ stop child visitation
There are numerous people who intentionally lose the custody of their children for providing an unsafe environment for their kids. Nevertheless, claiming that your ex-spouse is a drug addict or an alcohol addict doesn’t give you a clean chit to end child visitation. If you have to do this, you have to prove that your ex-spouse not only uses drugs but also shows proof that his/her lifestyle is hampering the life of the kid.
- The court determines ultimate custody
There are myths that the first spouse that files for custody is the one that wins it or that teens are given the permission to decide with whom they wish to live. However, the truth is that the court determines the ultimate custody. The courts will tell where a child will live, regardless of their age.
