What is shared custody?

Last June, the Congress of Deputies passed a motion calling on the Government to make the necessary amendments for the Civil Code to provide for the guarding and shared custody of children as a preferred modality.

When parents decide to end their marriage, child custody is one of the complicated issues to determine, as it was usually given to themother, for the reality is that the care of the creatures continues to fall on women, and they, the parents, have historically been the first to disregard that responsibility. So much so that, if custody has always fallen to mothers in the past, it is not so much that they won all the trials where both parents fought to the death because they were as long as possible with the children, but because the man simply did not ask to stay with them, however, society increasingly fight for equality of parents and more often aim to achieve a logical evolution is that, in the event of divorce, custody is shared by bothparents.

When is shared custody granted?

Until now, it was only established when there was an agreement between the parents, or if one of them requested it “exceptionally”, but what is intended is that it ceases to be exceptional, and poses a principle of equality ofparents. This calls for “co-responsibility” and parents they know how to agree when making the best decision for their children by looking for priority the well-being of minors.

Parents become increasingly involved in raising children, and when they divorce they do not want to part with them and become “visitors” of their children, but share with them day by day, fulfilling with them the obligation to be parents and the responsibilities that this entails Eva, but also enjoy their company and education, because children are not only burdens, because these parents have looked forward to their birth and do not want the marriage breakdown to also involve a breakdown of affections with children.

The new mode of preferential shared custody would grant equivalent periods of time to the father and mother to avoid that the relationship with their children is not damaged by the lack of daily contact with any of them. There’s parents who have been greatly harmed by the modality that granted custody to the mother by reducing the hours they shared with their children and being arbitrarily separated from them.

More and more parents are calling for joint custody

Many think it’s an illusion of an unreality that parents can exercise joint custody equally with the mother, that this modality does not correspond to social reality because normally the mother is the one who bears the obligation of childcare. In the old day, it was not even contemplated that a man would ask for custody of the children when he divorced, but in recent years increasingly encouragethemost to ask for it.

Shared custody is currently granted in one in four breakups.(In 2007 it was granted only 9.7 of the applications and in 2015 it amounted to 23.5). However, this situation has evolved in recent years and more and more women have to balance their working lives with the family, so more and more parents are involved in caring for children on the same level as a mother can.

When parents divorce and cannot resolve their differences, children also end up harmed by suffering the consequences of marriage breakdown, so it is important to seek the well-being of children as an essential purpose.
In order to facilitate communication between parents and make it easier to break down the matrimony bond, Toscano Lex’s team is at your disposal as experts in family law, advising you on all the legal aspects of separation and divorce .

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