Care of Children
Parents are responsible for caring for their children, and must make parenting decisions that are in the best interests of the children. It’s important to know what your legal rights and responsibilities are towards your children after separation and divorce. You need to work out how the children will receive on-going care.
Before you make an agreement or start a court process, you should know the legal and financial aspects of your situation. It will also be helpful to start thinking about the decisions you’re going to face.
Resources
- Take a look at the Parenting After Separation Program for practical information and tools on dealing with parenting issues. For more information see Dial-a-law.
- Other Resources: Family Law Act, Divorce Act, Family Justice Counsellors ,and JP Boyd
Need to Know
Generally, as a parent, you are a guardian of your children and you are responsible for their care. Guardians have Parenting Responsibilities and Parenting Time.
Parenting time is the time a guardian spends with the child. During parenting time, a guardian is responsible for the care and supervision of the child, and makes day-to-day decisions about the child.
Your legal responsibilities as a parent could include making decisions about:
- day-to-day care
- health care
- education
- religious upbringing
- extracurricular activities
- where the child lives
The law does not specifically say how a child is to split their time with each parent or with whom they are to live. The law allows parents to make arrangements that suit both of their needs. You could share the responsibilities equally or one of you may take on one or more of the responsibilities. However, the law states that all parenting decisions must be made in the best interests of the child. So as you’re trying to work out parenting decisions, always keep in mind that they must be in your child’s best interest.
FJC’s Tips
It is usually in the children’s best interest for them to spend time with both parents.
Courts tend to order arrangements where child care is shared by both parents.
Attention
If you have serious concerns about the safety of your children or are concerned they will be removed from their location without your permission, you should make an interim application to get a temporary court order. To learn more about how to do this see Get an order of a priority parenting matter.
Parenting Decisions When Separating
You are going to need to make a lot of decisions on how to parent after your separation. You will need to come to an agreement about where and with whom the child will be living and when the child will have time with each parent. Since there is no law setting out exactly how the parents are to share the care of the child, you are free to come to an agreement that works best for your unique situation.
You might divide parenting time with
- The child spends one week with one parent and the next week with the other parent or
- The child lives with one parent during the school year and the other during summer holidays and winter breaks
You should also set out which parent has what parenting responsibilities. There are multiple ways to divide up these responsibilities.
For example, the decision about the child's extracurricular activities could be:
- the sole responsibility of one of the parents or
- the responsibility of both and you must come to a mutual agreement on all decisions,
Once you come to a general agreement of how your parenting time is to be separated, it is important to consider the details of arranging it. For example, at what time is the child to be picked up and dropped off? Where are these pickups and drop offs going to happen? How are specific holidays to be spent? These are all questions that you should discuss with your former spouse before you finalize an agreement.
The time spent thinking about how you can parent together early on will save you time and frustration later, when you sit down to discuss these issues with the other parent.
DIY
Take a moment to fill in the Decisions About Parenting Worksheet.
How Are Parenting Orders Decided?
Decisions about parenting must be based only on the best interests of the children. A judge will consider what would best protect the child's physical, psychological, and emotional safety, security, and well-being, as well as a number of other factors related to the circumstances of the child such as the child’s view, relationships, and stage of development.
