Once your marriage is over and there are children involved, you should come up with a solid plan that will ensure that the kids continue living their lives normally with little stress and distraction. If both of you can control your emotions and reach an agreement, you should get a divorce lawyer or any other professional to serve as a mediator and solve your issues the less expensive way of mediation instead of dragging each other to court. In addition to mediation being cheap, it also guarantees that both of you fully reach an agreement before you take the next step.
Child custody
This is a sensitive issue. Depending on your situation, you can choose solo or joint child custody. If you are in good terms and are ready to be talking every now and then, you should go for the joint child custody but if you can’t stand each other, you should choose the solo custody way. In joint custody, both of you get to spend time with your children at different times of the week. For example, one parent can have the children within the weekdays and the other has the children during the weekends.
In solo custody, only one parent has access to the child. For the stability of the child, experts recommend that you choose joint custody but if one of you is irresponsible, you should get solo custody. If you are unsure of the best options you should go with, you should get the advice of an experienced child custody attorney.
Child support
Your divorce doesn’t mean that the life of your children has to come to a stop. Even with your divorce in place they still need to feed, go to school, have shelter over their heads, and many other things. It’s good to note that it’s the responsibility of both parents to support their children. If one parent is the one earning or earning more, he/she can have the larger responsibility.
To punish the other parent, some parents rush to court and request the court to order the other parent to be paying a certain amount for child support. This is wrong. Both of you should sit and agree on the right amount of money that you should contribute towards supporting the children. To avoid paying more than you are comfortable with you should get the advice of a child support lawyer. The professional will also represent you in court if need be.