User:Kenadie645/sandbox

In the article "Divorce in the United States. there is a section on custody that I will be adding on to today.

In cases involving children, governments have a pressing interest in ensuring that disputes between parents do not spill over into the family courts. All states now require parents to file a parenting plan, or to decide on child custody and visitation either by reaching a written agreement or in a court hearing, when they legally separate or divorce.

The spouse given custody (or the spouse with the greater share of residence time in the case of joint custody), may receive assets to compensate their greater child-care expenses.

When it comes to custody, if the child is 14 years of age or older, in some cases the judge will take their thoughts on who they want to live with in consideration. This is only the case in some states. There are a few cases where the judge does not ever listen to the child who is in the middle of the battle. In the rest of the states that do, the judge does not have to take the child's thoughts into his or her decision.