There are very few people in Barrie who would say that divorce is easy. While some people are able to end relationships on good terms with their exes, the more serious the relationship, the harder it may be to really separate and divorce. Not only do spouses need to divide their shared property and potentially establish spousal support payments, but if they are also parents they need to make emotional child custody decisions, too.
Since parents are not often used to sharing their time with their children the idea of having to create a joint custody arrangement can be difficult. Even though it can be hard to accept, these custody decisions are generally made in the best interests of the children. If one parent is dangerous or a bad influence, he or she may receive little or no custody; if both parents are able to provide nurturing and stable households, a court may choose to grant them equal parenting time. There has been a move, however, to formalise a presumption that Canadian parents should have equal parenting time. If passed, it would mean that, unless one parent can discredit the other parent, a court would automatically grant parents equal roles in raising their children.
Yet some people find a formal presumption to be problematic. There is some concern that if courts aren’t able to deviate from equal shared parenting it could have negative effects on the children. Since one parent would need to show substantial proof that the other parent should not have equal parenting time, it might force courts to award custody in ways that are not in the children’s best interests. Whether this is a valid concern, however, remains to be seen.
For now, divorcing parents can turn to their family law lawyers to help negotiate a child custody agreement that is in the children’s best interests.
Source: The Londoner, “Phony debate over legislating ‘joint custody’,” John Syrtash, March 26, 2014