Determining how you will split parenting time can be one of the most challenging aspects of a divorce. You and your spouse might want to spend the lion’s share of time with your child, and clearly, you can’t both do that.
What’s in the child’s best interests is the guiding principle judges should adhere to if called on to make a decision. Here are some things that might feed into their assessment of that.
What help will you have?
Raising a child alone is difficult, principally because it reduces the time you are free to do other things, such as work to earn money. Hence, if you can show that your family can support you with child care, a judge may consider it more feasible to give you more time with your child.
Family can offer support to your child too. For example, knowing that they will still have their cousins to play with or their aunt to talk to can provide important continuity and support to help them cope with the divorce.
What can you give the child that the other parent cannot?
Maybe you wish to have the child live with you in another state. If you wish to do that because you want to get far away from your spouse, a judge might not look favorably at it. If you can show it will give your child access to better schooling or access to better training facilities for their sports, a judge may consider it a positive.
Those are just two of the factors judges must weigh up when determining what is in a child’s best interests when making a parenting plan. Consider legal help to find out more.