What does consistent mean in a relationship and how does it affect a child custody case? Well, we all want to have a leg up on the competition. Whether it’s a business rival or a game opponent, we all strive to emerge victorious in competition. This doesn’t require constantly seeking to outdo others or incessantly comparing oneself, but it does indicate a desire to win when faced with competition.

As a family law attorney, I can’t help but think about divorce and child custody cases as a competition of sorts. Yes, A family law case is about much more than the competition. Still, at its core, your case is a matchup of you and your opposing parent to when as much time with your children as possible to maintain your relationship with those children. Parents of all kinds enter child custody scenarios with concerns and doubts about what the future will hold for themselves and their children. How can you, as a parent, give yourself an advantage in child custody situations during a family law case in Texas?

Gaining an advantage over your competition is acceptable as long as it’s achieved ethically. When people ask me how to gain an advantage in their child custody cases, I tell them that if you ask that question at the beginning of your case, you ponder it far too late. The difficulty in gaining an advantage in a family law case involving child custody is that it is not much you can do once your case begins to change the course of where a judge would likely rule in terms of custody responsibilities and time.

What outcomes are decided in a child custody case?

Before we go any further, let’s talk about what issues are decided in a child custody case. First of all, a child custody case can take place on its own or within a divorce. While a divorce will also touch on issues related to the financial lives of you and your spouse, our primary focus today will be on the child custody aspects of your divorce. When I think about child custody cases, I think about several subjects such as conservatorship and possession and visitation.

Conservatorship in a Texas child custody case

What is a conservatorship? You have undoubtedly heard of the term custody, but you may never have come across the term conservatorships. It may surprise you to learn that the word custody does not appear in the Texas family code. Instead, the term that we use to refer to custody is conservatorships. Conservatorships allow one person to make decisions for another person across various contexts.

For instance, you can serve as both the conservator of your child and your elderly mother who has dementia. Essentially, the law allows for another person to act as a conservator when one individual is unfit or unable to make decisions in their best interests for any reason. A conservatorship lets someone make decisions for another person, believing it to be in their best interest.

Primary Conservatorship in Child Custody: Authority and Residential Rights

In a child custody case, there are two parents and typically two parenting roles to fill. The first role is that of the primary conservator. When named the child’s primary conservator, a parent gains the authority to set the child’s primary residence. For instance, if a court designates you as your child’s primary conservator during a divorce, you gain the right to decide where your child lives primarily. Almost undoubtedly, you would choose to have your child live primarily with you, and therefore, you would have the upper hand when it comes to time with your child.

Moreover, obtaining the status of primary conservator in a divorce or custody battle enables a parent to collect child support from the other parent on behalf of the child. The rationale behind child support in most custody circumstances is this: since the other parent spends less time with the child, it’s reasonable that they contribute less towards the child’s care compared to you. To balance this, the other parent pays child support to you to compensate for this disparity.

Conservatorship Dynamics: Sharing Rights and Responsibilities in Child Care

Above all else, conservatorship issues entail the division of rights and duties related to your children between you and your co-parent. Typically, both parents share these rights and responsibilities equally. This means that both of you will have the right to receive medical and educational information from schools and doctors for your children. This also means that you and your co-parent will each have a say in Medical procedures and educational decisions on behalf of your child. Additionally, in an emergency, the parent with the child can make urgent medical decisions without consulting the other parent.

Both parents usually share other rights and duties regarding their child. However, some rights and responsibilities might solely belong to you or the other parent, especially if one of you becomes the primary conservator. While we need not delve into these specific rights and duties, understand that demonstrating a consistent and stable parenting history can significantly influence how a judge allocates rights and duties between you and your co-parent.

Possession/visitation in a Texas child custody case

For today’s blog post, I will combine the issues of possession and visitation into one. I’m doing this because custody and visitation are all about time with your children when you get right down to it. Notably, we are discussing this subject about how you and your co-parent must now divide time with your children between the two of you. As we all know, time is a finite resource. They are only so many hours in a day, and your child can only spend so much time with you and your co-parent. This means that you will need to figure out how to divide your time with your child during a child custody case. If you cannot do this, then a judge will be tasked with doing it for you.

As I mentioned a moment ago, the child’s primary conservator typically winds up with more parenting time throughout the year. However, if you are the non-primary conservator of your child, you don’t need to worry in most cases about having your co-parent have a disproportionate amount of time. In reality, the lion’s share of time that your Co-parent will spend with your child comes during the school year during the week. If you remove these periods from the overall possession schedule that you all adhere to, you are the parent who has more time with your child.

What does a judge look at when deciding issues related to your children?

Let’s begin today’s blog post with the end in mind. Most notably, what you need to learn about family law centers around the steps you can take to convince a judge that not only are you a good parent, but you are a stable and consistent force in your child’s life. As I mentioned a moment ago, it is tough to change gears once a case has started and suddenly become apparent that you were not six months ago. This means that if you plan to suddenly become a parent of the year once your divorce for child custody case has begun, then I’m telling you it almost indeed is too late for you.

The bottom line is that a judge would look for stability and consistency for your child. They would be tasked with making what is called the best interest determination on behalf of your child. This means that the judge would consider what is in your child’s best interests and would need to predominantly make decisions based on that factor. Your concerns or that of your co-parent regarding parenting or losing time with your children is not a primary motivator for the judge. They would look to what would benefit your children the most physically, emotionally, and relational and make decisions accordingly.

Building a Case for Primary Conservatorship: Stability and Work Flexibility

As such, you need to figure out how you can plan out your case to show that you are a consistent and stable parent were your child. For instance, if you are interested in becoming the primary conservator of your children, it would be vital for you to show a judge that you have a consistent work schedule and that you would be available to your children In the event of an emergency. A work schedule that does not allow much flexibility would not be the most conducive color to becoming a primary conservator of school-aged children.

If you plan to push for becoming the primary conservative review children, you should make plans in advance and create a work schedule for yourself that is conducive to this goal. It does not matter if you are a terrific parent and have always done what you can to be physically present for your children. If you have a work schedule that is not flexible and does not allow for you to be able to be at home with your kids consistently, then a judge would likely look negatively upon this unless other circumstances allowed you to care for your children, despite your busy work life.

Closing thoughts on Child custody cases in Texas

Having a solid relationship with your children long before your child custody case begins is a best-case scenario for you. Putting aside any issues related to your family law case, having a solid relationship with your children is what your child needs and what you need. Undoubtedly the essential parts of my life are those that revolve around my kids. I know that even if your circumstances are not the same as mine, you would agree that your kids are the center of your life. You likely would not be going through all the time, effort, and trouble associated with a family law case unless you believe this was true.

Build a relationship with your kids for no other reason than it is the right thing to do. You will find that your relationships with your children improve if you make yourself physically and emotionally available to them. If you need to go through a child custody case in the future, your lawsuit will already be set up well for you to be able to have as much time for Anne’s rights to your children as possible. While not every aspect of a child custody case is direct competition, you may as well put yourself in a position to win those parts that are. Building and maintaining strong and consistent relationships with your children is the best way to do so.

Questions about the material contained in today’s blog post? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan

If you have any questions about the material contained in today’s blog post, please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys offer free-of-charge consultations six days a week. These consultations can be had in person, over the phone, or via video. I appreciate your interest in our blog, and we hope you will join us again tomorrow as we share more information about Texas family law.

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