Weekends By Appointment Only

Contact Us Today: 317-468-2355

Toll-Free: 866-958-6354

Photo of the Allen Wellman Harvey Keyes Cooley, LLP logo on the office building name board

Our Experience Matters

Since 1918, our full-service law firm has been getting results for our clients. We can do the same for you.

What you should know about custody and visitation

If you’ve recently gotten a divorce, you may be tempted to request sole physical custody of your child because you want to keep your children close to you. You may also seek full-time custody depending on the actions of your ex or the circumstances of your divorce. However, when you’re making child custody arrangements, you should always think about what’s best for the children. If you’re an Indiana resident, here are some things to keep in mind to help you make the best custody and visitation arrangements.

Physical custody

The parent who has physical or residential custody will have the children in their care most of the time.

If a parent has sole physical custody according to the child custody arrangement, the child will live at one address. The non-custodial parent is usually given visitation rights and the child can spend the night at the other parent’s home in most cases.

If parents have joint physical custody, the children have two primary residences. They will live with one parent for an amount of time, and spend around the same amount of time with the other parent, going back and forth between two homes. Some parents have even opted for bird’s nest custody, which is when the parents take turns staying in the home and the children remain at the same address.

Visitation

A visitation schedule allows parents who don’t have custody to see their children regularly. Most parents have unsupervised visitation, which means the non-custodial parent takes the children to their home for a day or two or on an outing on the days outlined in the visitation schedule.

Supervised visitation means that the parent must be accompanied by another adult, often a family member or social worker, while visiting with their children. Parents who live out of town can arrange virtual visitation and connect with their children with video conferencing software.