The outcome of your child custody dispute can mold your child’s life until they age into adulthood or until you’re able to acquire a modification. In other words, there’s a lot at stake when child custody is at issue. That’s why as you prepare to advocate or litigate your child custody dispute, a strong legal strategy must be developed. While this means gathering evidence that speaks to your child’s best interests and each party’s parenting abilities, it also means avoiding mistakes that could quickly derail your position in your custody case.
In this post, we want to look at some of those mistakes so that you know where your custody case can go wrong. Hopefully then you’ll be able to anticipate those mistakes and proactively take steps to avoid them.
Mistakes that can quickly tank your child custody case
Given the best interest standard applicable in child custody cases, you have a lot of flexibility in how you argue your position. But doing any of the following could devastate your stance, leading to the outcome that you hoped to avoid:
- Focusing too much on work and not enough on parenting: In today’s world, most people have to grind day in and day out to make ends meet or to achieve their financial goals. While that’s understandable, you need to look at your work life in context of the time that you spend with your child. If you frequently choose work over spending time with your kid, then the other parent is going to be able to argue that you’re not suited for sole physical custody, shared physical custody, or extended visitation.
- Avoiding the tough times in parenting: Parenting can be fun, but it certainly comes with its difficult times. Your child will get sick, face emotional struggles, and maybe have trouble with schooling. If you avoid those difficult times, then you’ll be hard pressed to successfully argue that you should be responsible for your child’s full-time care. Your child’s other parent might even use your avoidance to argue that your parenting time should be restricted.
- Disrupting the parent-child relationship: When considering what sort of custody arrangement is in your child’s best interests, the court is going to look at the efforts that you’ve made to facilitate a meaningful relationship between your child and the other parent. If you’ve actively tried to stymie that relationship, then the court will view your actions as harmful to your child, which could drive it to issue orders contrary to your wishes.
- Posting too much on social media: Your child’s other parent is going to use anything and everything they can find against you. If you’re posting pictures of wild nights out on the town or statements about how difficult parenting is, then the other parent is going to latch onto them as evidence of your shortcomings as a parent.
- Turning to drugs or alcohol to cope: Dealing with divorce or a custody dispute can leave you with a lot of emotional turmoil. But turning to drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism is a sure-fire way to be beaten in your child custody case. So, if you need emotional and psychological support, consider seeking out mental health treatment.
Know how to develop a persuasive child custody case
There are a lot of different angles to take in your child custody case. You have to find the one that’s most effective. That might sound difficult to do, but we think that once you fully analyze the facts of your case, you’ll be better positioned to choose the avenue that’s best for you, your child, and the relationship between the two of you.