If you’re going through a Divorce and are thinking about how the Court will handle you and your spouse’s rights to the Children’s custody, care and control as well as access, then you first need to understand the different rights that parents have in relation to bringing up their children and the many unique concepts that are involved in this process.
There are 3 very different issues and rights that the Court will allow and grant to you and your spouse:
- Custody of the Children
- Care and Control of the Children
- Access to the Children
These 3 sets of rights and responsibilities are meant to deal with the different ways in which parents need to make decisions and interact with the Children in bringing them up.
The right to have Custody of the Children is a completely different to the right to have Care and Control of the Children.
The right of a parent to have Custody of the Children refers to the parent having the right to make significant and major decisions in relation to their upbringing and welfare, such as choosing their type of education, religion, nationality and medical treatment.
Custody of the Children is often one of the more hotly contested issues in a Divorce. According to Singapore Divorce and Family contained in the Women’s Charter, Guardianship of Infants Act, Administration of Muslim Law Act., the “child” and “children” that will be affected by a Divorce Custody Order are those who are a child of the marriage and who are under 21 years of age. The law of Custody is applied equally to everyone in Singapore irrespective of whether you are Muslim or non-Muslim.
On the other hand, the right of a parent to have Care and Control of the Children refers the parent having the right to make decisions on their day-to-day matters and daily activities, such as their living and care arrangements on a daily basis. In most cases, the Court will give one parent the right to have Care and Control of the Children (e.g. from Monday to Friday when the Children are attending school) for the majority of the time and another parent the right to have Access to the Children for only certain, specified periods (e.g. on weekends when the Children are not attending School).
Although parents and sufficiently mature children can inform the Court of their preferences regarding the Custody and Care and Control terms and arrangement, the Court will make the final decision by looking at will ultimately be in the children’s best interests.
When the Court has decided on how to assign and grant the parents rights to the Custody of the Children, it will state the final decision in a Court Order.
So, there you have it, some basic information on: Basic information on Child Custody issues in a Divorce
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