Now that you have decided to obtain a Nebraska divorce, your biggest concern likely is how your children will react to this news and what kind of a post-divorce custody arrangement you and your about-to-be ex-spouse will come to. Obviously, this arrangement will affect you and your children for years to come.
One of the most widespread custody arrangements nowadays is that of joint custody shared between the mother and the father. Assuming that your marriage has no history of spousal or child abuse, you likely will want to seriously consider sharing joint custody with your former spouse. Why? Because for the most part, when both parents remain significantly involved in their children’s lives after a divorce, everyone fares better.
Children’s benefits
StatNews.com reports that the results of a recent study show that post-divorce joint custody arrangements benefit the children as follows:
- They have the opportunity to maintain strong parent-child relationships with both their mothers and fathers.
- They have the opportunity to maintain strong familial relationships with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. on both sides of the family tree.
- They tend to suffer less anger, anxiety, fear and depression both during and after their parents’ divorce.
- They tend to maintain their pre-divorce grade point averages in school.
- They tend to maintain their pre-divorce peer friendships and establish new ones of similar value.
- They tend to better resist the urge to participate in alcohol or drug usage.
Parental benefits
While no doubt exists that post-divorce joint custody can greatly benefit your children, you should not ignore the fact that it can benefit you, too. For instance, you likely can expect the following:
- You and your former spouse will develop and maintain a civil and cooperative post-divorce relationship.
- You and (s)he will spend far less time bickering about issues such as which of you receives parenting time when.
- You and (s)he will cooperate when it comes to child-related issues and emergencies.
- You and (s)he will have the satisfaction of watching your children grow up into happy and well-adjusted adults secure in the knowledge that both of their parents love them.
This is general educational information and not intended to provide legal advice.