Coparenting Issues: He won’t take 50% of the parenting time

  Question: My child’s father and I had a baby 18 months ago.  We still live together, but we’re not romantically involved.  We will never get back together.  (Like, ever.)  I’d like to move out, so I’m considering consulting an attorney about custody and visitation.  I’m worried I’m gearing up for a huge custody battle....

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Virginia Custody Agreements

The whole point of a legal contract – any contract – is to establish specific terms governing a certain situation.  When we’re talking about divorce, we use a separation agreement.  When it comes to custody and visitation, we’re either talking about an initial determination or a modification, but the same goal exists: to agree, rather...

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Can I draft my own custody agreement?

If you don’t want to have a trial in your court case, you have to settle your case first.  In a divorce or custody context, settlement is achieved when there is a signed agreement negotiated between the parties.  In a divorce case, you would sign and negotiate a separation agreement – a legal contract that...

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It is incredibly difficult to go through a separation and/or divorce (or even a breakup, if you and your child’s father never married) when you have children in common.  Going from ‘you’ time and ‘me’ time to ‘your’ time and ‘our’ time is a huge change. There’s not enough said about navigating those complicated and...

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Childcare is one of the most difficult parts of parenting.  It just is.  I think that is true across the board, regardless of whether you are married to your child’s father, never married your child’s father, divorced your child’s father, are separated from your child’s father, or your child’s father is totally MIA.  It’s really,...

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Common Coparenting Issues: Lifestyle Choices

Lately, I’ve done a whole series of articles on common coparenting issues on everything from travel and relocation to extracurricular activities and birthday parties.  Believe me, all sorts of things come up!  Coparents can find a million different ways to fight with each other, both before and long, long after their divorces or break ups...

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Relocation is often a big issue in divorce and custody cases.  It’s not limited to moms or even dads; it happens pretty frequently that, wherever you happened to reside when the marriage began to fall apart at the seams, one (or both) of you would prefer to live somewhere else.  Especially when your marriage is...

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Kids keep you busy.  If it’s not one season, it’s another.  And between the after-school events, social activities, birthday parties, sports, summer camps, classes, and other activities, it can be overwhelming shuttling the kids to and from all of it. Keeping up with the calendar alone can be challenging enough, but for separated and divorced...

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