Ways to Improve Our Chances of Keeping Our Children in a Divorce Settlement
The one thing that can become complicated with a divorce is who will gain custody of the children. It will also be a factor in the financial settlement. The children will need to be cared for both financially and emotionally through what will prove to be a challenging time for everyone.
To help the divorce and custody process run smoothly, you can look to contact a divorce lawyer such as one from the aptly named firm Simply Divorce, who can be found online at www.simpledivorce.ca and will make the legalities as straightforward as possible for you.
Financial Backing
Before contemplating divorce, it is useful if the party wanting custody of the children has some financial backing behind them and a means to earn a regular income. This will help in court proceedings, as without finances, it becomes less practical for custody to be awarded. What can make this possible is a good divorce settlement. This makes it important to have a divorce lawyer who can achieve a settlement that will mean that custody can be given to their client. The other person in the divorce will, in many cases, be doing their best to make things impossible financially as a tool to succeeding with the custody side.
Damaging Criminal Associations
It does not go down well in custody cases where the party wanting custody, or just access to children, has had any associations with the criminal underworld or even been involved in petty crimes and drug use. This means that to stay a model person is to give you the best chance of securing custody, or at least full access to children, after divorce.
Unfortunately, turning to alcohol is seen as a common solution for many who are feeling depressed because of divorcing but this should be controlled so that it does not reach levels that are going to affect custody. Do not give the other party and their lawyer any means by which to disadvantage you.
Threatening Actions
Do not behave in a threatening way or stalk the other party involved in the divorce because these kinds of actions will hamper your chance of success in a custody battle. You want to be the model citizen here and not put a foot wrong to show that you will be a responsible parent when it comes to looking after your children and teaching them what is morally right or wrong.
Does the Mother Always Get Custody?
It is a myth that the mother always gets custody of the children. This can be dependent on circumstances and what is considered by the courts in the best interests of the children. It can be a financial decision as well as one swayed by asking what the children want. An alcoholic or drug-taking parent, for example, will likely rule out their chances. A violent father or one convicted of any kind of abuse will not be the role model the child or children need and may even be seen to put sons or daughters in danger. All this will be weighed up by the legal experts.
It should be considered that all is not lost if custody is given to the other party if there is not too much animosity over the decision. You will want, as the unsuccessful party in a custody battle, whether that be the mother or father, to be awarded by a court as much access as possible to children. Full and regular access will be the next best thing to fight for when children can be enjoyed at weekends and treated to enjoy their visits even more. Many children, although heartbroken by their parents divorcing, can benefit from the love of two sets of parents spoiling them. Not too much, of course, so that one set of parents becomes preferred over the other when some rules and boundaries need to be set.
Thinking seriously about the above, we can improve our chances of gaining the custody of children in a divorce settlement by thinking about how we can fund looking after children independently of our former partner, and by acting responsibly during the process of divorce so as not to reduce our chances of being considered the perfect parent.
