Child Custody – Some Questions and Answers
For those uninitiated, child custody is one issue they would rather not delve into. However, since divorce naturally brings with it the thorny problem of child custody and other attendant problems, people are now curious about certain aspects of it.
The following are some common questions asked by people who are not quite in the know. The answers are collated responses from some child custody lawyers.
Child custody laws are not the same in all the states in the U.S. The following answers are mostly in general terms inasmuch as they apply and/or recognized by the courts all over the country.
What is custody?
“Custody” means who is responsible for the children in cases when their parents do not live together. This applies to couples who are separated, divorced, or never married.
How is physical custody different from legal custody?
Physical custody means the child would spend time living with that parent on a regular basis. If it is a “joint physical custody”, the child shuttles between each parent’s homes.
If a parent has “sole legal custody”, that parent has the right to make decisions on the child’s health, education, and overall welfare (doctor, schools, etc). In “joint legal custody” both parents share the decisions.
How is a decision made?
The judge usually approves a custody plan agreed on by the parents. If they cannot, they will have to speak with a mediator or counselor to work out a plan. The judge will decide on any disputed issue both parties are unable to resolve.
Can a child still see a parent not awarded physical custody?
The court will order that the other parent is given generous visitation with the child. However, this might be restricted in cases of domestic violence, or the parent’s inability to care for the child.
What if the custodial parent forbids the child’s visit to the other parent?
The denied parent could ask the court for a “contempt” order. The custodial parent denying visitation will receive court sanctions. If it was proven to be done on purpose, the other parent will have grounds to have the child’s custody. The judge will first require the couple to work out things with the help of a mediator.
Can a custody arrangement be changed if it doesn’t work?
Parents can change a custody arrangement if it doesn’t work, provided they come up with a new plan and ask the judge to make it official. If the parents still disagree, they can ask the judge to do the changes. The judge’s decision will be based on the child’s best interests. This could be difficult if the child is well-cared for or the custody plan had been in place for some time.
Can anybody have custody over a child other than the parents?
In California, judges must first consider the parents first, either singly or together. A judge, however, may give custody to another person (a grandmother, step-parent, or a friend) without the parents’ consent. The consideration is if the judge believes child custody to either parent is harmful to the child.
No Comments
Connect with Your Child but Don’t Overdo it
We all want to connect and be involved with our child. Children of involved parents generally feel more confident, assured and have a higher level of self esteem. They excel in school and do well in extracurricular activities and with their hobbies.
But is there such a thing as too much involvement? It's imperative when you're becoming involved with your school-aged child's activities and academics that you recognize the line of what being too involved can be.
Remember, you're becoming involved in your child's life. It's important that you don't intrude too much upon it. Children need their space and privacy and they need to be able to develop their own skills, talents and abilities. In our eagerness to help our child succeed, it's tempting to want to step in and start doing things for them because you feel they are doing it incorrectly or inadequately. But remember, you had to learn too, and this is their chance to learn on their own.
Be there to encourage and support your child, and offer praise at a job well done. But also remember to step back and allow your child to learn from their own mistakes, and to develop their own way of doing things. We all know from our own life experiences that there's always more than just one way to do something, and just because your child is doing it differently than you would doesn't make it wrong. Who knows, it could present a terrific opportunity for you to learn from your child as well.
In addition, try not to become too overbearing or nosy when it comes to their social life. Be available for them should they need to talk and encourage them to share their troubles with you so you can help them sort through a problem. But if they say they don't want to talk about it or they just need some time to figure things out for themselves, respect that need by letting them know you're available whenever they need you. This is an important part of growing up and allowing a child to figure his own way through things is an integral part of that process.
No Comments
Being Strong During Child Custody Case
With all the problems that come along the way during a child custody case, it is oftentimes hard for a person to support a certain level of positive outlook in life. This is because more often than not, the parent would only experience failure because he or she wasn’t able to meet the goals and expectations that are set.
However, despite the discouraging times, this is not enough reason to give up when there’s an ongoing child custody case. In fact, for some people, this can be a good opportunity to start anew. These hard times can serve as an inspiration itself for one to be able to overcome difficulties and triumph over life's adversities. And when handled properly, people can get lifelong lessons from these trying times and use it to live a good and contented life.
Making the best out of what you have
Experts say that it is only common for people to feel depression, anxiety and defeat if life has given them so many tests and trials such as enduring a child custody case. However, instead of feeling depresses and sulking into the taste of defeat, people can use this as an opportunity to make themselves stronger by using these emotions and experiences to survive and motivate his or herself. The following are just some of the ways on how people can survive when there’s an ongoing child custody case:
1. Never stop learning. Experts say that once people realize that life is a never-ending journey to learning, they will be able to find ways to their successes. To keep positivism alive, it is best to never stop learning because this opens up to new worlds of possibilities that are waiting to be explored. If one continues learning through read or by trying different things, he or she can gain more confidence to do things and start with new projects. You can adopt these because when you continue learning, you can acquire new skills that can add up to the things that you can do.
2. Always have a positive outlook in life. This might some easy for some but many people are in fact having a hard time developing and maintaining a positive outlook in life. Maybe because people just have different personalities and different upbringing that affect the way they see life in general. If one wants to survive in these hard times, he or she must start developing a positive outlook in life. This can be done by trying to see the good in bad at all time or when possible.
3. Avoid too much thinking. If possible, stop thinking at all times over negative aspects of the child custody case. This is because thinking would only bring in a mix of emotions that could be harder to handle and manage later on. To keep positive outlook in life, one must try to veer away from negative thoughts and only think of the things where he or she could something good. One must also try not to dwell on things that are beyond control because this will only cloud the positive outlook he or she is trying to build.
No Comments
Helping Your Child Fight Shyness
Shyness develops early in young children. On their own, children cannot overcome shyness. Parents and the immediate family are needed to help children fight shyness. And this should start when they are young and impressionable.
The following are some time-tested guides on means for parents to help their child fight shyness and overcome it in the end.
Slow changes
Behavioral changes do not happen overnight, as much as it cannot be done in a short time. Start by easing your children into learning non-shy behaviors, and doing them in small steps. One example is teaching them how to say “thank you” and “please” to right situations to all people, including complete strangers.
Socializing
Parents should not let children be alone for unnatural lengths of time. Introduce them to activities with other children to encourage them to be sociable with others their own age. Parents should not spare their praises for their children’s efforts at socializing. A pat on the back, a smile or a good word reinforces the good effects of what they did in their minds.
Independence and responsibilities
Shy children tend to be dependent on their parents or to other adults. They are not willing to take risks, including making new friends and participating in social activities.
Parents can introduce a sense of independence and responsibility. They should solve their own problems and let them make decisions. Choosing what to wear is one sample of a decision-making effort.
Taking responsibilities can be slowly done by assigning them small chores apt for their age and abilities. A girl can help the mother do some very light duties. A boy could be assigned to feed the pets. These are good for their self-esteem.
Reinforcing shyness
Paying too much attention to a child’s shyness (or worse, punish them for it) will only reinforce the behavior. Instead of forcing things around (making shy children to speak at all costs, etc.) or punishing them, parents should put on a calm attitude and treat shyness like an ordinary thing.
Teasing by family members or by other children is another form of negative reinforcement. It seriously damages a child’s self-esteem. For a shy child, the best recourse would be to withdraw some more into themselves to avoid being teased, and the cycle goes on. Use all your powers never to allow teasing.
Speaking for shy children also reinforces shyness. They will not learn to speak for themselves even if given the chance. Parents should never answer questions for their children and speak for them.
Criticism, nagging, or threats to children when they act shy will only unnecessarily put into focus their shyness. Forcing them to do things they are not yet ready will produce opposite results.
The better option is give them opportunities to public. Also, encourage them to do things slowly. If situations become overwhelming for the child, parents should respect their feelings and do not force things.
Helping your child fight shyness is a long and continuous work, if you look at it that way. Actually, it is more of giving the love and attention the child deserves in order for him or her to develop the self-esteem and confidence needed. It is not work.
No Comments
Suitable Clothing For Children
During infancy
Infants are very susceptible of the impressions of cold; a proper regard, therefore, to a suitable clothing of the body, is imperative to their enjoyment of health. Unfortunately, an opinion is prevalent in society, that the tender child has naturally a great power of generating heat and resisting cold; and from this popular error has arisen the most fatal results. This opinion has been much strengthened by the insidious manner in which cold operates on the frame, the injurious effects not being always manifest during or immediately after its application, so that but too often the fatal result is traced to a wrong source, or the infant sinks under take an unknown cause.
The power of generating heat in warm-blooded animals is at its least at birth, and increases successively to adult age; young animals, instead of being warmer than adults, are generally a degree or two colder, and part with their heat more readily; facts which cannot be too generally known. They show how absurd must be the folly of that system of "hardening" the constitution (to which reference has been before made), which induces the parent to plunge the tender and delicate child into the cold bath at all seasons of the year, and freely expose it to the cold, cutting currents of an easterly wind, with the lightest clothing.
The principles which ought to guide a parent in clothing her infant are as follows:
The material and measure of the clothes should be such as to keep a sufficient proportion of warmth to the body, regulated therefore by the season of the year, and the delicacy or strength of the infant's constitution. In effecting this, however, the parent must guard against the too common practice of enveloping the child in innumerable folds of warm clothing, and keeping it constantly confined to very hot and close rooms; thus running into the opposite extreme to that to which I have just alluded: for nothing tends so much to enfeeble the constitution, to induce disease, and give the skin highly susceptible to the impression of cold; and thus to produce those very ailments which it is the chief intention to guard against.
In their make they should be so arranged as to put no restrictions to the free movements of all parts of the child's body; and so loose and easy as to let the insensible perspiration to have a free exit, instead of being confined to and absorbed by the clothes, and held in contact with the skin, till it gives rise to irritation.
In their quality they should be such as not to irritate the delicate skin of the child. In infancy, therefore, flannel is rather too rough, but is desirable as the child grows older, as it gives a gentle stimulus to the skin, and maintains health.
In its construction the dress should be so simple as to admit of being quickly put on, since dressing is irksome to the infant, causing it to cry, and exciting as much mental irritation as it is capable of feeling. Pins should be wholly dispensed with, their use being hazardous through the carelessness of nurses, and even through the ordinary movements of the infant itself.
The clothing must be changed daily. It is eminently conducive to good health that a complete change of dress should be made every day. If this is not done, washing will, in a great measure, fail in its object, especially in insuring freedom from skin diseases.
During childhood
The clothing of the child should have the same properties as that of infancy. It should afford due warmth, be of such materials as do not irritate the skin, and so made as to occasion no unnatural constriction.
In reference to do warmth, it may be well again to repeat, that too little clothing is often productive of the most sudden attacks of active disease; and that children who are thus exposed with thin clothing in a climate so variable as ours are the frequent subjects of croup, and other dangerous affections of the air passages and lungs. On the other hand, it must not be forgotten, that too warm clothing is a source of disease, sometimes even of the same diseases which originate in exposure to cold, and often renders the frame more susceptible of the impressions of cold, especially of cold air taken into the lungs. Regulate the clothing, then, according to the season; resume the winter dress early; lay it aside late; for it is in spring and autumn that the vicissitudes in our climate are greatest, and congestive and inflammatory complaints most common.
With regard to material (as was before observed), the skin will at this age bear flannel next to it; and it is now not only proper, but necessary. It may be put off with advantage during the night, and cotton maybe substituted during the summer, the flannel being resumed early in the autumn. If from very great delicacy of constitution it proves too irritating to the skin, fine fleecy hosiery will in general be easily endured, and will greatly conduce to maintain health.
It is highly important that the clothes of the boy should be so made that no restraints shall be put on the movements of the body or limbs, nor injurious pressure made on his waist or chest. All his muscles ought to have full liberty to act, as their free exercise promotes both their growth and activity, and thus insures the regularity and efficiency of the several functions to which these muscles are subservient.
The same remarks apply with equal force to the dress of the girl; and happily, during childhood, at least, no distinction is made in this matter between the sexes. Not so, however, when the girl is about to emerge from this period of life; a system of dress is then adopted which has the most pernicious effects upon her health, and the development of the body, the employment of tight stays, which impede the free and full action of the respiratory organs, being only one of the many restrictions and injurious practices from which in latter years they are thus doomed to suffer so severely.
No Comments
Camping with Kids
I remember the days of camping before children. Grab a bag of clothes, sleeping bag and tent, and make a quick stop at the store for some food. My friends and I could plan a camping trip in fifteen minutes and be out the door a half hour later. Camping with kids is a whole different ballgame.
Most of the friends I know that camp with their kids have a trailer to sleep in. They have found that this is the easiest route to take. Turning on a generator to run your blow dryer is not my idea of camping. So how can you “rough it” with kids?
This is another great teaching opportunity. Survival. Necessity. Make a list of what you must take to survive your camping trip. Talk to your kids about what is a necessary item. Have them pack these first. Then talk about what they would like to make camping more fun or easier. See if there is room to pack some of these things.
Know that food is half the battle. Figure out how you are going to cook your food, and plan accordingly. You don’t want to spend all day cooking, and you don’t want to be sitting around the fire at 8:00 at night waiting for that chicken to cook.
Don’t get caught up in “what are we going to do”. You are out in nature! Explore it. Go for walks, find a place to camp by a river or lake, watch the stars, dig in the dirt. Show your children that entertainment can be found in the simple things.
Keeping it simple will make your camping trip more fun and less work for you. With a little pre-planning, you can have a great time camping with your kids.
No Comments
Choosing good Friends
Friends are an important part of childhood and you want to make sure that your child develops good friendships early on. It’s easiest to make the best choices for your children while they are young.
Have your children invite their friends to play at your house. This gives you a chance to see how they play together and how they interact with other members of your family. Become acquainted with their parents also, and you will find that this will help you understand their family situation. Help your child to understand what your values are and to recognize the same values in friends that they make.
Teach your kids values that are important to you, like being honest, and make sure they understand that it applies to friends too. I had a daughter who came to me because a friend wanted her to lie to me about going to the mall. She told me what she really wanted to do, and what her friend thought she should say. After her friend went home that day, we talked about what makes a good friend. She decided that she didn’t want a friend that was going to try to get her to lie.
Realize that all children are different. You might have a child that has fifteen friends and makes new friends easily. Then you might have another child who only has one or two friends, but has a closer friendship with them. Recognize what works for your child and help them develop the relationships that fit with their own personality.
Helping your child understand how to be a good friend will help them recognize good friends also. It is so much easier to influence your children while they are young. Take advantage of these opportunities while you can.
No Comments
Categories
Blogroll
- Autism
- backgammon game
- Best Kids Recipes
- Child Custody
- Child Daycare
- Family Tree
- forex market
- Parental Control Software
- Plugins
- Suggest Ideas
- The wonder moms world
- Themes
- Toddlers
- WordPress Planet
Free Doctor Consultation
Recent Comments
- iwan on Poor Milk Supply
- Louis Vuitton Outlet on Poor Milk Supply
- Louis Vuitton Outlet on Bed Wetting is for Adults Also
My Baby Zone
familypaper.net
0 | Unique Visitors |
Who's Online
2 visitors online now
2 guests, 0 members
Powered by Visitor Maps
Translator
My mobile site
This is a 2D-barcode containing the address of our mobile site. If your mobile has a barcode reader, simply snap this bar code with the camera and launch the site.
Many companies provide barcode readers that you can install on your mobile, and all of the following are compatible with this format: