How Often Can a Father See His Child?
One of the most emotive topics after a separation or divorce is how often a father can see his child.
In this blog, Northwest family law solicitor Louise Halford explains the law regarding parenting time after separation or divorce.
For specialist family law advice on parenting plans and child arrangement orders, call Evolve Family Law or complete our online enquiry form.
How often can a father see his child after a parental separation?
There is no rule on how often a father can see his child after a parental separation. As specialist family law solicitors, we have negotiated parenting plans or secured child arrangement orders that say:
- The child lives with their dad and spends some parenting time with mum, or
- There is a shared parenting regime, or
- The children live with their mum and their dad has contact.
In extreme cases, where there are significant welfare concerns, the court can order supervised parenting time or even no contact.
Our family lawyers recommend that neither parent attend the parenting negotiations with a fixed idea of the parenting time that must take place. In most families, there isn’t only one solution that will meet the children’s needs to have an ongoing relationship with both parents.
Do children always stay with their mothers after a separation or divorce?
It used to be the case that after a separation or divorce, most children lived with their mother, and their father had parenting time or contact. In many families, that remains the position. However, instead of it always being assumed that a child will live with their mother nowadays, all options are on the table, including the child living with their father, the child having contact with their mother, or a shared care arrangement.
It isn’t so much that the law has changed, but societal attitudes and working practices have changed. For a long time, the court has focused on what child law order is in the best interests of the child when determining court applications over parenting time.
As every child and family is different, family lawyers must consider family circumstances before advising on parenting arrangements or when advising on a child arrangement order application.
Custody, residence and child arrangement orders
In the past, when a father traditionally went out to work and the mother was a stay-at-home parent or worked part-time, it was often thought best that a child should continue to live with the primary caregiver or the parent who was available to meet their day-to-day needs.
With both parents now often working full-time, the best interests of the child may be best served by a shared care arrangement.
The change in working patterns and societal norms has prompted a change in legal language. Lawyers no longer talk about custody, contact and residence, but rather parenting time.
Is a father entitled to shared care if he wants to co-parent his child after a separation or divorce?
Although much is written in the media about shared parenting being the norm or ideal, neither a mother nor a father is ‘entitled’ to share the care of their child after a separation or divorce. That’s because if parents can’t agree on the childcare arrangements for their child and the court is asked to make a child arrangement order, the court will assess what order is in their child’s best interests.
Shared parenting (whether that is an exactly equal split of parenting time or a sixty-forty split of time or other percentage) may be the best option for the child, but not necessarily.
Equal shared parenting time may not be in the best interests of a child if:
- Parents don’t live, or are not intending to live, relatively close to one another to ensure that the child can get to school from both homes, or
- The child prefers to have one home base, rather than moving between homes, or
- One parent’s work commitment means that if parenting were shared, the reality is that the child would be looked after during that parent’s parenting time by extensive use of professional carers, or
- The parents don’t get on at all and won’t cooperate over parenting, making frequent handovers for the child disruptive and distressing.
Shared care can be ideal, but it isn’t practical for every family, and therefore it isn’t in the best interests of every child whose parents separate or divorce. When looking at childcare arrangements, it is best not to think of ‘entitlement’ but what arrangements are likely to meet your child’s needs.
Is shared parenting the best option for children and their dads?
Most child experts say that spending an equal amount of parenting time with a child after a separation or divorce isn’t the key to successful parenting, but ensuring that the time you do spend with your children is ‘quality’ time.
For parenting time to be quality time, it doesn’t have to be expensive outings, but being able to set aside time to read with younger children, help with homework, or transport to football practice, ballet club or just talking and taking an interest in what your children are doing at school or when they are with their other parent.
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How often can a father see his child?
Fathers often want to know the worst-case and best-case scenarios of how they will usually be able to see their child after a separation or divorce. A great deal depends on your circumstances. For example, contact will be restricted if a mother successfully applies for a relocation order to enable her to move overseas with the child, or parenting time will be more limited if a father has to relocate to a new area in the UK due to his work commitments.
Many parents agree to split the week so that children spend roughly equal amounts of time with each parent. For other families, the preferred option is for a child to live with one parent during the week and have midweek and alternate weekend parenting time with the other parent. Contact with the child every weekend would mean that the residential parent of a school-age child would not spend any quality time with the child over the weekend.
There is therefore no set rule about how often a father can see his child. That can be frustrating for some fathers who want certainty after a separation or divorce. However, not having set rules means that parents can work out what child parenting arrangements or co-parenting schedule works best for their family, or the court can be asked to make a child arrangement order after assessing what is best for your child rather than following a fixed formula.
Manchester and Cheshire Children Law Solicitors
If you need help with your separation or divorce, negotiating parenting time or representation in a child arrangement order application, call Evolve Family Law or complete our online enquiry form.
We have offices in Whitefield, North Manchester and Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, but we can also arrange a telephone appointment or online consultation.
