When parents are separated, they need to make some parenting arrangements about how children spend time with them, how they live with them, and how they make some decisions about the kids. Some people call these rights and responsibilities ‘custody’ or ‘guardianship’ but these terms do not really exist in family law and we do not use them.

The easiest way to understand is putting them in 3 levels: parental responsibility, ‘live with’ arrangements and ‘spend time’ arrangements.

The 1st level is parental responsibility. Parental responsibility is making long-term decisions about the children including school, medication, religion, health, and citizenship. By law and by default, these kinds of decisions need to be made by both parents together. Unless it is Court ordered saying otherwise, parents also have equal shared parental responsibility by default.

Now, the next level is the ‘live with’. The ‘live with’ is with whom the kids are actually living. They can live with one parent and spend time with the other parent, or they can live with both parents in some shared care arrangement. The shared care arrangement can be equal with a 7/7 arrangement (1 week with one parent and the other week with the other parent) or it can be another shared care arrangement. We normally look at a fortnight cycle; for example, within 14 days, the children might live with one parent for 9 days and the other parent for 5 days. This arrangement can be 9/5, 6/8, 10/4 or 7/7.

Now the third level is the ‘spend time’, how children spend time with a parent with whom they do not live. It can be school holidays, special events, kid’s birthdays, Christmas, Easter, or special days.

It’s very important to understand that ‘live with’ and ‘spend time’ arrangements are the child(ren)’s right, it’s not the parent’s right. So a parent can’t say “well, I have a right to see my son or my daughter” - no, it’s the child’s right to have a meaningful relationship with both parents and to spend time or live with both of them.

If you have any other queries regarding your rights and responsibilities post separation, please call us on 07 2113 4645 so we can schedule your initial consultation with one of our solicitors.