When parents divorce there are a lot of decisions that need to be made quickly. Many times parents must make plans for their children during a whirlwind of activity, and they may not have enough time to really think through all of the issues and decide what is best for the children. Fortunately, parents don’t need to rush into a permanent custody agreement. They can make a temporary child custody agreement to get things started.
A temporary custody agreement is exactly what is sounds like–temporary custody arrangements for the children. A mother and father make arrangements for the children until they come up with a permanent solution. A temporary custody agreement doesn’t need to be as detailed as a permanent agreement, but it should contain a temporary custody and visitation schedule and temporary custody provisions that parents want to implement. Parents usually make a temporary custody agreement when they are not sure the best place for the child to live and they want to test some initial arrangements, when they need an agreement quickly and don’t have time to make a permanent one, when there is a lot of change going on and they are waiting for things to settle before making a final agreement, etc.
The process for making a temporary agreement is quite similar to making the final one. Ideally, a mother and father can work together to come up with the arrangements for how they will share custody of the children. They write up a plan for how they will share time with the children and handle other responsibilities (they should pay particular attention to handling finances during this time). The parents can go to court and have the temporary custody agreement approved by a judge (the judge will put a date when the temporary agreement ends and a permanent one should be submitted) or they can both just agree to it. If the mother and father do not agree on custody, they can go to court and have the judge determine the temporary agreement.
If a parent is worried about the other parent’s behavior concerning the children (for example, if a parent is worried the other parent will kidnap the children and leave) then they should immediately go to court and explain the emergency situation. The judge will grant a temporary custody agreement to ensure that they can do something if the other parent leaves with the children.