From Lawpack's DIY Separation & Divorce.
When dealing with disputes between divorcing parents over where the children should live, family lawyers are frequently asked whether it's true that the mother always gets the children. Fathers often believe that they are at a disadvantage when it comes to court orders.
In the eyes of the law, parents do start off on an equal footing and there's no particular advantage to mothers when it comes to a battle over residence. Every child is an individual, with his or her own set of characteristics and circumstances, and the court will do its utmost to ensure that the decision made about any particular child will be in that child's best interests. In most cases, a decision will be made after careful investigation of all the circumstances including, of course, the ascertainable wishes and feelings of the child, if he or she is old enough to understand what's going on.
If the child is only a baby or very small, the courts do sometimes consider the child to be more adequately cared for by a mother than by a father. Again, this isn't true of all babies or very young children as many modern fathers are equally capable of caring for their children from babyhood and some mothers don't provide the best care. This again will depend on the circumstances.
As the children grow older, the undeniable tilt of the scales in the mother's favour becomes less significant. But if it's the case that the mother may be available on a full-time basis to care for the children whilst the father has a full-time job, then the courts will take this into account.
But don't presume that every full-time mother succeeds in obtaining a residence order where the father has a full-time job. Remember, each case depends on its facts and the guiding principle for the court will always be to discover what will be in the best interests of the child.
September 2006
