Anyone who glances at the news from time to time is well aware of the fact that celebrities are prone to having relationship troubles. Even worse, those who are married tend to have ugly divorce proceedings when lots of money and children are involved. Here are three examples of celebrity child custody battles and their results:
Brad Pitt gets to see his children every other day
In spite of an intense custody battle with his estranged spouse, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt has recently spent every other day with his six children. This every-other-day visitation arrangement has begun after the recent expiration of the couple's temporary summer custody agreement. At this time, the couple's court-ordered custody evaluation has not been completed, so permanent legal arrangements are pending.
Sharing holiday time with the other parent of your kids
Barring rare circumstances, the other parent of your children will usually share custody with you -- and at the very least, this parent will have visitation rights. This means that when important holidays come around, you'll have to find a way of sharing this time with the other parent of your kids.
4 ways to share your parenting time
Newly divorcing parents will need to find a suitable way to divide the time they spend with their children. The best way to arrive at a suitable and lawfully appropriate parenting-time agreement is to stay flexible to what works for you, your child, the other parent and your unique situations. Here are four ways that parents might split the time they spend with their kids:
What is therapeutically supervised visitation?
Florida parents don't always have the legal right to spend time with their kids. When a parent is denied access to his or her children like this, however, it's painful and damaging for both the parent and the child. In fact, children can grow up with emotional scars when they're denied access to a mother or father for legal reasons. For this reason, Florida courts will strive to ensure that children have access to both parents. Courts may even award supervised visitation in cases where the court believes that the parent poses a danger or threat to the safety of the child.
Quality of life in marriage, credit-card debt and child support
Just like some are content with one beer and others are not, some can spend responsibly and others are swipe-happy with their credit cards. If you're a responsible spender, and you're married to a swipe-happy person, you may be suffering financially because of it. In fact, many decide to bring their marriages to a close because of their spouses' out-of-control spending habits. When one spouse racks up large credit card bills, however, the other spouse might might wonder how will this debt will be divided in divorce and will the false quality of life made possible by the debt affect child support amounts?
Do you need to factor third-party time into your parenting plan?
You and your ex will be the ones who spend the most time with your children. There's no doubt about that. As such, the primary purpose of your parenting plan is to decide how you and your ex will divide the time with your kids between one another. An important way to ensure this division is fair involves taking into account third-party time.
How will you divvy up the holidays with your kids?
Most families have established various traditions they enjoy with their children during the holidays. Whether it's decorating the Christmas tree, drinking hot coco while singing a Thanksgiving hymn, or hunting for Easter eggs in the backyard, some of these holiday traditions will take on a different flavor when mom and dad are living apart. There's also the fact that the children will probably only get to spend each holiday with one parent at a time.
How to determine the best interest of your child
The best interests of your child will be subjective at best, and it will be difficult for the average parent to view those interests objectively. Although your personal opinion matters, if you're litigating your child custody case in court, you will need to understand how a Florida family law court will determine your child's best interests so that you can better argue your case.
Post-divorce parenting: Should you spend time with your ex?
Children often ask their parents whether they'd be willing to spend a "family" day together. Perhaps your child wants to go to a theme park with you or your ex, or maybe your child just wants to do a lunch with everyone sitting around the same table. You might be tempted to give an immediate yes or no answer to this question, and it will all depend on the quality of your post-divorce relationship with your ex.
