Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

Re: custody rights for teens

The law does not provide for giving a minor the right to choose which parent to live with. Sometimes parents will agree to respect the wishes of their child, but that is unusual. If there is a custody action in the court, the judge will usually talk to the child and take his or her wishes into consideration, but children often want to choose a parent for the wrong reasons (more freedom and fewer rules, more money and better toys, better computers, cars, etc., or no requirements to eat the broccoli). If a minor child has good reasons for wanting to live with one parent and not the other, the judge may base a decision on the well-founded wish of the child. If it appears that one parent has been trying to influence the child to choose him or her and has been discussing the issue with the child, that will usually count against that parent, because most experts (including most judges) feel that it is unfair to children to ask them to make such choices. It places a terrible burden on a child, even a thirteen year old child who may be very mature. A parent who really cares about what is best for the child will most often avoid dumping such a decision on the child.