Physical Custody Gives the Parent the Right to Take Care of the Child Daily
Video Transcribed: My name is Jason Lile, and I am a Tulsa Dads Rights lawyer. In a recent video I shot, I discussed legal custody and how many of my clients misunderstand what that is. And I’m not going to go back into that. If you want to learn more about that, I will refer you to my previous video. The second type of custody in Oklahoma that we deal with is physical custody.
Physical custody is the same as visitation, so you’ll often hear it described as visitation. Still, it’s just the time and amount of time you have on paper in your final orders that you are entitled to physically possess the child or your children.
Now, you should know that the ideal for any child is split time, and that’s where the courts will start, as in, “We’re going to try and do split time. Tell me why we shouldn’t.” There are many reasons why you wouldn’t do split time.
It might be that one or the other party’s job availability doesn’t allow that. The most common problem is that they live too far apart to move the child back or the children back and forth and back and forth between the two parents’ homes. So we come off of split time for many reasons.
And the third and perhaps most dramatic reason we might do that is that one parent has a fitness issue. And by fitness, we don’t mean going to the gym. We mean they might have a drug problem, or they might have a paramour in their lives that aren’t good for the children because they have a criminal record, or they might have a criminal record themselves, or they just may be mistreating the children or neglecting the children.
So physical custody refers to the court’s decision or your agreement with the other parent as to how much time on paper the child will be spending with you and how much time they’ll be spending with them.
Typically, we have a traditional split holiday schedule that almost every county I practice in Oklahoma has its own version of. And of course, what’s on paper doesn’t always have to be followed because, by agreement, the parties can always ad hoc change the physical custody schedule. And here’s what I mean.
If you go to your baby’s mother and say, your children’s mother and say, “Hey, this weekend, I have a family reunion coming up. Can we switch?” Then, that’s legal, permissible, and often encouraged by the court. And that’s the ideal.
You want to get to the point, if possible, where you and the child’s other parent can just address issues as they come up without relying on the court’s paper. And the court’s papers should only be relied upon when the wheels fall off, and you can’t agree.
That’s physical custody. If you have any questions about physical custody or any other issues with family law, and you’d like to get ahold of me, I’d love to speak to you about it. So if you have any questions about this or ever need a Child Custody Attorney for Fathers in Tulsa, Okla, or a Child Support Attorney For Fathers in Tulsa, Okla, please contact dads.law.
