SHARED RESIDENTIAL CUSTODY

PERMANENT CARE

António José Fialho

Portugal

CHILDREN ARE NOT PROXIES FOR BATTLES

Family disputes can have a devastating impact on children.Parents have the responsibility to sheld their children from the

negative effects of family discord.They should seek to mediate peacefully disagreements about

their children´s future.

PRINCIPLES OF ACT N.º 61/2008,31st OCTOBER

1.º - Child development necessarily depends on both parents, none of whom will replace the function that

fits the otherIt highlights the need to promote the concerned

participation, concerted and an active co-responsibility of both parents for raising children

2.º - Paternal relations are located at a differentiated level from marital relationships

There’s a need to ensure stable and deep emotional ties between the child and both parents, despite

their separation

EVOLUTION OF FAMILY LAW IN EUROPE AND THE WORLD

1.º - Equality of both parents in the education and care of children

2.º - There’s a need to ensure parenting models that allow the maintenance of relations of close

proximity, extensive opportunities for contact between parents and the children and facilitate the

share of responsibility between them.

TRADITIONAL PARENTING MODEL AFTER THE DIVORCE

TIMES OF SHARING BETWEEN PARENTS AND CHILDREN

PARENTING MODELS AFTER DIVORCE

To minimize the impact of divorce, there must be large periods of coexistence

Emotional stability depends on the nature of the affective ties and the opportunities of sharing rather than the changes of physical space

Models of shared parenting allows both parents to ensure personal moments of intimacy, dating or simple living, free from the children (“child-free time moments”)

SHARED RESIDENTIAL CUSTODY

Singular mode of co-parenting after a family dissociation, characterized by a rotary division and tendentiously joint of the resident times, care and education of children, between father and mother

Based on two criteria;- Tendentiously symmetric rotating division of time;- Production of an everiday family and social life with

the child

SHARED RESIDENTIAL CUSTODY

Characterized by the ability of each parent to live with the child, alternately, at a leap of time wich may be of a school year, one month, two weeks, one week, one part of a week, or an organized distribution on a daly basis, in which, during that time period, the parent has, uniquely, the exercise of parental responsibilities

At the end of that period, the roles are reversed

CRITICS• It serves the interests of the parents rather

than the children• It is detrimental to the consolidation of the

habits, values , and the personality formation pattern• It contradicts the principle of home

continuity• It may cause the child emotional and mental

instability

ADVANTAGES• It contributes to a greater emotional attachment

between the child and both parents since it integrates the household (the child is not seen as "visit“ at the the other parent’s house)• It allows to mitigate the effects of poverty among lone

parents and to ensure an equal distribution of times and charges• It allows both parents free time for themselves

FAMILY RESPONSIBILITY

Family relationships are defined and unfold within the family

State should not rule overlap at their will, much less when the violation of any rule of law or public order is not concerned

It concerns to the parents, in the first row, choosing what they want for their children, considering the best they can give, within their abilities and their knowledge

NORMATIVE CRITERIA

The child’s best interest The agreement of both parents The willingness of each parent to foster

relationships with the other The maintenance of a very close relationship

with both parents The encouragement of ample opportunities

for contact with both parents and sharing responsability between them

GUIDANCE CRITERIA The child’s best interest The ability to dialogue, understanding and

cooperation between both parents A common educational model or consensus on its

fundamental guidelines The geographical proximity The child’s will and the child’s age The emotional bond with both parents The availability of parents to maintain direct contact

with the child during their residence period Economic and housing conditions of each of them

(equivalent or sufficient)

DISCUSSION ABOUT SHARED RESIDENTIAL CUSTODY IN PORTUGAL

What children’s sayI live with my parents but I have two houses.My father lives in one house and my mother live in another

house … that´s the way my family is.I’ll allways be my parents’ son. They are mine and I belong to

them.But they don’t belong to each other … do you know what I

mean ?

(R., 7 years old)

THE FUTUREThe effort to ensure that children have

post-divorce parenting arrangements which promote good social and psychological adjustment is an ongoing one, involving dialogue and debate at all levels

Our children deserve no less than this