Genuine disputes between parents regarding child custody and/or parenting time are often very difficult to resolve, because of the high degree of emotion about such issues.
There is also no doubt that how that dispute gets resolved can have a huge effect not only on each parent's life but - more importantly-their child's life for years to come.
The process by which child custody and parenting time disputes get resolved is every bit as important-if not more important-than the result.
Three Most-Frequently Asked Questions About Child Custody/Parenting Time Issues in Pennsylvania:
Pennsylvania Governor Chris Christie recently signed the bill which will offer protections to Pennsylvania parents who are in the military and become involved in child custody/parenting time cases.
The main goal of this new law is to protect the custody and visitation rights of a soldier facing a long term deployment. This law prohibits a Pennsylvania Family Court judge from using a parent’s military status, when determining who should get custody of a child. Before this law was enacted, judges could use a parent’s active military status and the possibility that he/she would be deployed as a factor in the custody determination.
As always, the standard for determining child custody in Pennsylvania will remain “What is in the best interests of the child?” Fortunately, the Pennsylvania Legislature has decided that it is in a child’s best interest to ensure that both parents have a fair chance in child custody determinations.
What exactly does the new law say? Judges cannot “consider the absence or potential absence of a service member parent by reason of deployment with the U.S. Military or treatment for sustained injuries as a factor in determining the best interest of the child.” Courts are also prohibited from making changes or adjustments to a custody arrangement while a parent in the military is deployed, unless the best interest of the child is at stake.
The merits of the new law are highlighted by the fact that it was passed unanimously by both branches of the Pennsylvania State Legislature.
Many people think that the issue of child support in do it yourself divorce in Pennsylvania is easy to resolve without the input of a lawyer, because there is a written formula (the NJ Child Support Guidelines) which determines the amount of child support in every case, and there are several websites you can go to if you want to try to figure it out on your own.
Sometimes that’s true, and sometimes it’s not.
According to Child Trends, a Washington research group that has analyzed government data, more than 50% of children born to American mothers under 30 years of age now occur outside marriage.
Even when all age groups are considered, less than 60% of American mothers are married when they have children.
One group resists the trend: college graduates. About 92% of college-educated women are married when they give birth, compared with 62% percent of women with some post-secondary schooling and 43% of women with a high school diploma or less.
There are also large racial differences: 73% of black children are born outside marriage, compared with 53 % of Latinos and 29% of whites.
Almost all of the rise in non-marital births has occurred among couples living together. While in some countries such relationships endure at rates that resemble marriages, in the United States they are more than twice more likely to dissolve than marriages. According to research done at the University of Michigan, two-thirds of couples living together split up by the time their child turned 10.
Because the legal issues facing single mothers and separating unmarried couples are complex, it is important for them to select a Pennsylvania family law firm with the knowledge, experience and resources to properly represent their interests.
This looks so fun! We don't do one-on-one activities with our kids enough, but you've definitely made me want to, even if this post is about a family walk! Now that it's cooling down we like going on walks in the evening before bed, and it has been so nice just to get out of the house! We'll have to try those Clif bars! The Oatmeal Cookie one sounds amazing!
I've missed your blog. So happy that I thought to check out your fb page and come visit. I'm never disappointed. Your free printable is the cutest thing ever. My children would love to do this daily.
How about winter walks though, you participate in those?! ? Oh wait... You're in Arizona (or somewhere) with sunshine year round. It's about to be a blizzard mess with snow to my waist in a couple months!!! =) Lol
Monica, long time no see!! I'm glad to hear you're doing well! Haha we definitely don't have to deal with blizzards but we have the opposite, 115 degree summer days, so I feel ya on certain parts of the year being near impossible to go on walks. Actually I feel like our "winter" months are coming to an end and we can finally venture outside without it feeling like an oven haha! ?
We are big on family walks. All great benefits, especially getting some of that energy out, haha!
My kids and I love going on walks! But, our neighborhood isn't really the best for it. It isn't horrible, but it's not particularly safe either. I'm hoping that by this time next year, we will be in a new house and in a new, family-friendly neighborhood. Then we will be walking all the time!
I hope you are too Marietta! I could definitely understand that situation, I've lived in some places before that were safe but were just...questionable haha.
Hi Jessica! Family walks are the best ? We have some of the best conversations with the girls when we go on walks. We definitely need to do them more often
Thanks for sharing us,