Jeremy: When parents separate or divorce, they have to make a lot of decisions.
They have to decide who you will live with and how that will work.
This is called custody and visitation or parenting time.
If you live with one parent, when will you get to see the other parent? How often? And for how long? There are lots of different ways to arrange how you will spend time with your parent.
If you live with both parents, will you stay with one parent during the week and the other during the weekend? Or will you spend one week with one parent and one week with the other? There are lots of different ways to live with both parents.
Your parents have to decide how much money one parent has to give the other to help pay for the things you need. This is called child support.
Your parents need to decide how they will divide all the things they own together. For example:
When parents stop living together, each parent may have a lawyer. Lawyers know about the law. Their job is to help the parent understand the laws about separation and divorce, and to help the parent do what he or she thinks is best for you.
If your parents can’t agree on these things themselves, they might have to get extra help. They might go to a mediator for help, or they might go to court and have a judge make the decisions for them.