Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

My wife and I are getting a divorce. We have a 5 year old girl and I have a 15 year old son from first wife. We are trying to work through the divorce. She said I could have my 5 year old for 3yrs as the primary residency but she wanted in the divorce papers that she get custody after 3 yrs. My questions are.

1.Will the court go for this?

2. If after 3yrs I change my mind would it make it easier for me to change it and keep it like it is.

3. Or would I be better off just trying to get custody?


Asked on 1/19/12, 8:12 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

M. Elizabeth Foley The Law Office of M. Elizabeth Foley

Truthfully, that seems like a rather odd arrangement that would probably not work well for your daughter and that a court might not be likely to approve. Certainly, parents can come up with all kinds of strange-sounding custody arrangements that nevertheless work great for them, and it it manages to keep the child happy and both parents in the child's life, usually courts are willing to accommodate. I'll be interested to see what other attorneys have to say on the subject, but this specific plan just bothers me. Kids do routinely have their lives uprooted by divorce and custody modifications, but generally speaking, that's to be avoided. This is basically a planned custody modification, if you think about it. Is the idea here to let your daughter be able to stay with her brother while he's young enough to still be at home, or is this something that's convenient for your wife, for some reason? I really don't know if a court would be likely to approve this anyway, much less uphold it three years from now if they did approve it, and you then asked for a modification so you could keep her, but it seems to me that regardless, it might be better to look for other solutions. Keep in mind that the reality is that while it may seem like working out child custody is just like working out the terms of a contract, it's not--the parents arent the only ones involved, and if the arrangement turns out to just not work well for the child, it can usually be changed at any time. Good luck.

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Answered on 1/19/12, 9:01 am


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