If you plan to share custody of your son or daughter with your ex-spouse after your divorce, you may be in for a few awkward months. After all, you may have to shuffle your child between two residences. You also may need to see your ex-spouse briefly to exchange custody of the child.
When your parenting time begins and ends, you must transfer physical custody of the child to your ex-spouse. To minimize the potential for conflict, you may want to specify the location of the transfer in your custody agreement or parenting plan.
The importance of neutrality
You do not want your custody transfer to turn into a turf war. Still, for you and your ex-spouse, seeing each other’s post-divorce living arrangements may be difficult. Therefore, you may want the location of your custody transfer to be a neutral place, such as a public park, restaurant or shopping center.
The nature of custody transfers
Unless you and your ex-spouse end up living next door to each other, one or both of you must commute to the location of the custody transfer. To avoid conflict, neither you nor your child’s co-parent should bear the total burden of the inconvenience. Consequently, you may want to select a transfer site that is approximately equidistant between your home and your ex’s.
The benefit of flexibility
Even if you pick the perfect spot for your custody transfer, inclement weather or something else may make it unsafe or otherwise unacceptable. Accordingly, you may want to negotiate a backup transfer location. You may also want to have a procedure for transferring physical custody of your child in emergency situations.
While the location of your custody transfer may seem to be a comparatively trivial custody-related issue, you should spend some time on the matter. Ultimately, any effort you put into ironing out the fine details of your custody arrangement is likely to benefit both you and your child.
