child care and child custody
let’s talk about the top three issues and how the court typically handles them
in my experience who gets to decide
and what kind of childcare does your child go to
typically I’ve seen court say look
it’s your time go ahead and put whatever childcare you think is appropriate
sometimes if it’s like a daycare situation
then the child will attend the same daycare for both parents
but that can also change depending on where the daycare is located
from each parent’s house typically I’ve seen court say yeah
if it’s your time you decide first right of refusal
this is where one parent says hey
when you’re at work and you need child care
go ahead and let me know and have the first option to provide child care
this is super popular with typically one kind of parent
where they’ll go in and ask
however more and more I’m seeing court say nope
I’m not gonna put first right of refusal in an order why
because it can cause more conflict than it solves
if it’s your parenting time
you have children you deal with them
you handle the child care
if it’s not your parenting time and other parent makes child care decisions
oh well enjoy your children on your time
and lastly grandparents and other family members as child care providers again
typically I’ve seen court say it doesn’t matter
grandma can watch the children
it’s not up to you to stop whether grandparent watches the children
if it’s other parents decision
however I have seen courts intervene and say ah
we’re not gonna allow grandparents to watch child children
if there is some kind of health issue
that interferes with their ability to care for a child
for example if you have grandma who can’t lift anything
but we’re dealing with an infant
probably not great to have her be the child care provider
at the same time if we’ve got uncle who’s going to watch the child
and uncle is an alcoholic
addicted to some kind of prescription medication
the court might say not the best choice
so typically
the courts going to allow family members to be the child care providers
and they’re going to let it go
unless there’s some known provable issue as to why they are not good
the bottom line with child care is your child
your time your decision