How to Get Custody

Working with an affordable divorce lawyer in Tampa is one of the best ways to protect your parental rights during a divorce.

In most divorces, parents share custody of their children. The exact amount of time children spend with each parent might not be equal. However, the court prefers that children spend a healthy amount of time with each parent. They want kids to have relationships with their parents, even when the family is not living in the same home.

Unfortunately, custody is often a contentious issue during a divorce.

Working with an affordable divorce lawyer in Tampa is a great way to understand your rights as a parent and ensure that you and your children are treated with respect.

What Can You Do to Improve the Chances You’ll Get Full or Shared Custody of Your Children?

Ideally, you and your ex will create an arrangement without court interference regarding custody. Children should spend a reasonable amount of time with both parents.

Custody is also about who makes decisions for children. Again, the ideal arrangement is that unmarried parents still be able to do this together.

Co-parenting means that both parents play an important role in the lives of their children. They share responsibility and decision-making for things like:

• Education
• Health and medical needs
• Vacations
• Living arrangements
• Religion
• And more…

Unfortunately, divorcing couples sometimes don’t agree on these issues. In the most contentious situations, they can’t even agree on the time each parent has with their children.

What can you do to protect your parental rights and ensure the court sees the benefit of including you in your child’s life?

1. Keep Up with Child Support Payments

If you’ve been ordered by the court to pay child support, you must keep up with these payments. Even if the arrangement is not permanent or you don’t agree with what you’ve been ordered to pay, keep payments up-to-date and let your lawyer fight for a better long-term arrangement.

One of the main reasons why courts look at parents as unfit is because they can’t or won’t pay their court-ordered child support payments. Keeping up with payments is the most basic and important thing you can do to protect your parental rights.

2. Don’t Pick Fights with Your Spouse

It’s challenging for most couples to not argue during their divorce. Unfortunately, arguing can affect your parental rights.

As difficult as it might be, be pleasant when interacting with your spouse. If they try to pick a fight, avoid reacting. If it’s too difficult to interact without fighting, ask your lawyer to handle as much of the communication as possible.

3. Keep Your Emotions in Check

Controlling your emotions is an important part of transitioning your family peacefully from marriage to divorce.

No matter how challenging it might be, set your emotions aside and focus on the task at hand: ending your marriage with as little conflict as possible and making the transition as easy as possible for your children.

4. Be a Stable Parent

One way you can increase your chances of getting primary custody is to show that you are an extremely stable parent.

This means maintaining a:

• Home
• Steady source of income
• Life that doesn’t expose your children to anything dangerous or unhealthy

When making decisions, consider how your choices will affect your children.

5. Consider Counseling

If you’re struggling with any of the above-listed items or you’re having a tough time accepting the reality of your situation, it helps to speak to a professional. It might also be beneficial for your children to participate in therapy.

An Affordable Divorce Lawyer in Tampa Helps You with Custody Issues

No matter your situation regarding custody, it’s important not to panic. Even if your custody situation seems bleak now, it doesn’t mean you’ll be banned from your children’s lives forever.

If you’d like to discuss your custody arrangement or you want to know more about the benefits of working with an affordable divorce lawyer in Tampa, contact The Geller Divorce Firm at (813) 405-1509.