When parents in California divorce, decisions will need to be made regarding child custody. While in some cases parents will share joint physical custody of the child, other time one parent will be awarded sole physical custody and the other parent will be awarded visitation time. There are a variety of ways visitation in California can be structured.
Scheduled visitation
In some situations, the best way for children and parents to have a sense of security and structure is to have scheduled visitation. Parents and/or the court will come up with specific days and times that each parent will have the child in their care, including holidays and summer break. For example, one parent might have the children in their care every-other weekend and Wednesday evenings, and the other parent will have the child in their care the rest of the time.
Reasonable visitation
Sometimes one or both parent’s living situation requires more flexibility than scheduled visitation can provide. In this case, reasonable visitation may be more appropriate. These types of orders are open-ended, allowing the parents to work out who will have the child in their care and when. In order to make reasonable visitation work, parents must be flexible, cooperative and communicative with one another. Disagreements and misunderstandings can lead to issues that may make this type of visitation infeasible.
Supervised visitation
Sometimes, family dynamics make supervised visitation a necessity. This may be so if the child’s safety is an issue or if the child and parent have been estranged and need time to get to know one another. The child’s other parent, another adult or a professional agency can supervise the visitation time.
Learn more about visitation in California
The state of California allows for a variety of ways parents and/or the courts can arrange visitation in a child custody case. This post is for educational purposes only and does not contain legal advice. Our firm’s webpage on child custody may be a useful resource for parents who want to learn more about this topic.
