Understanding the Difference between Child Custody and Parenting Time

By Gerald A. Maggio, Esq.

Orange County divorce mediation; California Divorce MediatorsA divorce is more than two people separating; it is the disintegration of a family’s structure. Legal separations get messy when there are children involved. Unless it is an extreme case of abuse, it is unfair to separate the child/ children from the parent because the adults have issues. Proper parenting starts with the combined effort of both parents.

Custody and parenting hours are two terms that pop up during divorce settlement. Custody is the responsibility and the rights the parents have among them to support and care for their children. When custody is decided, visitation hours are also specified. Visitation is the how’s and when’s of a parent visiting a child.

The State of California allows the decision of joint or individual custody to be made by the parents. The final decision is however made by the judge.

Custody types 

In general, there are two types of custody-

  • Legal custody which permits the parent to decide the best for the child like welfare, education and healthcare
  • Physical custody where the choice to live with which parent is made.

Both can be joint custody when the parents come together as a team to make decisions that is in the child’s best interest. Alternatively, one parent can take sole responsibility for the child. The legal responsibilities include residence, religion, child care, school, sports, travel etc.

Parenting schedule orders  

Visitation or parenting time is the plan which the parents devise to distribute time between themselves with the child. When a parent is allotted less than half time with the child, visitation hours are allotted. The frequency of visitation is case specific.

There are four variations of visitation:

  1. Scheduled visits– Think of this as a time table like the one most of us had in school. There is a specific pre-determined schedule. The flexibility of the hours depends on the equation and understanding between the parents. This schedule ensures that there is no conflict or confusion in the visitation hours.
  1. Reasonable visits: These are open ended and there is no specific time which is allotted to each parent.
  1. Supervised visits: When the child’s safety and wellbeing is in question, all visits are supervised either by the other parent, or an adult chosen by the parent or a professional agency.
  1. No visits: In extreme cases, if any visit from a parent is stressful or unsafe for the child, the parent does not receive visitation rights.

To learn more about the child custody and divorce process in California and how mediation can help, please visit our page, What is Divorce Mediation