If you are about to divorce your spouse, your primary concern might be for your children. After all, your soon-to-be ex might try to limit your parenting time or even gain full custody of your kids. Still, according to Psychology Today, even if you and your spouse do not see eye-to-eye on all child-related matters, having two involved parents can be beneficial.
A protracted custody battle might not be good for anyone in your family, of course. If you can convince your spouse to participate in it, mediation can be valuable in most child custody cases.
What is custody mediation?
If you and your spouse cannot agree about parenting time, visitation and custody, a judge is likely to consider the best interests of the involved children when making binding orders. There is an alternative, though.
With divorce mediation, you and your spouse use a neutral mediator to resolve custody-related matters, such as parenting time, vacations, childcare and even financial support. As you might imagine, mediation is often less expensive and faster than litigation.
Is the mediation binding?
Engaging in mediation comes with some risk, as you might not agree with its outcome. Fortunately, mediation typically is not legally binding. If you have objections, you likely have the opportunity of taking your custody dispute to court.
On the other hand, if you can resolve your custody dispute through mediation, a judge is apt to honor the agreement you formulate. Ultimately, because of its obvious benefits, mediation is something most parents should consider when facing custody disagreements.