Breastfeeding is important for many moms. Even though I think most of us can agree that fed is best and that there is not (or should not be) any stigma for moms who choose to feed their babies formula, breastfeeding is a big deal. We’re bombarded by messages about breastfeeding, and its benefits to both...
Will weaning impact my Virginia custody arrangement?
It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally a woman tells me that she doesn’t ‘need’ child support. It’s an interesting comment, and one that I feel kind of confused by. What do you mean – you don’t need it? Child support, after all, is not designed for the comfort of the parent receiving it; it’s...
One thing to remember about custody and visitation cases in Virginia (and everywhere else) is that you’re playing a long game. So many parents get wrapped up in the next court hearing and tie all their hopes and dreams on it, when, in reality, contested cases usually play out over years and years of hearings....
Moms and dads often don’t parent the same. Sometimes, that’s a problem, and other times it’s not. It can be just a fact of life; a reflection of the difference in two coparents different backgrounds, perspectives, and world views. It can, actually, be a good thing when two parents are different, because it gives...
Like entirely too many things in life, there’s no rule book for how to handle certain things after divorce. Before I go too far, allow me to say one thing. Actually, I’m going to give it a header tag, so that it’s bigger than the rest of the text, and so that it really...
I first started writing articles about COVID-19 related concerns back in March of 2020, never expecting that an entire year later I’d still be dealing with concerns related to the ongoing pandemic. Custody and visitation issues are some of the biggest that we face in family law, especially when parents share children between two different...
On Monday, I wrote about Virginia’s child support guideline calculations, and what might happen to child support in a situation where a mom, who previously stayed at home, re-entered the workforce. I wrote the article for a couple of reasons, but mostly because I’ve recently encountered two different attitudes. One was a woman, telling me...
Understanding custody isn’t easy. In fact, I often tell people that learning about custody first involves learning the vocabulary of custody, and understanding how the different forms of custody relate to each other. Though custody litigation is common, these disputes often center around similar themes. In general, child support is not a particular contentious...