Custody Conciliation

About

The decision to live apart is a painful one for anyone, and it is most difficult when children are involved. They have no part in the decision of the parents to live apart. Yet, when parents do separate, it has a great impact on their lives. How can they still love both parents when they are no longer together as a family?

Even though their relationships ends, both parents have the responsibility to continue to care for and make decisions that affect their children. The way in which the parents choose to make these decisions will directly affect their children’s behavior, personality and feelings about himself or herself. The couple’s relationship may end, but the two people will continue being parents.

The goal of the Office of Custody Conciliation is to assist parents in working out the terms of their shared custody arrangement in a nonthreatening, nonadversarial manner though mediation. Mediation is negotiation and communication with the help of a neutral third party.

The custody conciliation process consists of different levels of parental involvement. The purpose of the several steps in the custody process is to give parents every opportunity to work out an arrangement that they can be committed to. It is easier to be committed to a schedule that you have developed on your own and not one that is imposed on you by the Court.

The role of conciliators and the purpose of these conferences is not to assign blame for the breakup of your relationship or assess the worthiness of either one of you as parents but rather to help preserve the irreplaceable relationship your children are entitled to have with both parents.