Child custody

[hammerman]

A mate of mine has a 13 year old daughter and is seperating from his wife. he wants joint custody of their daughter so all the responsibilities and costs are shared. The wife will stay in the marital home whilst he will rent a 2 bed flat.

Both parents earn the same amount of money so im not sure if any maintenance would have to be paid to anyone

The daughter would spend 3 days with the dad and 3 days with the mum leaving one day for grandparents.

is this possible to do without the courts involvment and they don't want things getting nasty...the daughters registered adress will still be the marital home.

Any suggestions, comments, help welcome.

[redcrx]

if both parents agree then theres never a need to get the courts etc involved, and if it can be sorted so that everyone is happy then thats great.
Courts / csa etc are only really needed when one parent doesnt agree with whats being suggested and thats when it gets messy.

[pink-kittens]

Agree with redcrx

Don't even consider involving courts and solicitors if an agreement can be made amicably. It sounds as if they have it all under wraps and that it will work well for the child involved

[stepper]

What a fantastic arrangement - if only all divorcing couples were as considerate to each other.

[ummmm]

At 13 she will also have a say in it.

[sara3]

we did this shared care thing. we were told it was very unsettling for the kids, not having one official place to call home.

I think it's worked okay but I hate it when my son says "your house" or "dad's house". he never says "I'm at home", which seems sad to me.