When the term Custody is used in a divorce, it refers to the parent who has the decision-making power over the child. The person with Custody makes major decisions such as where the child goes to school, what doctor the child sees, what medical treatments are made and what religion the child is brought up in. Either one parent or both parents can have this major decision making power. (For more information on Custody, please visit the post titled “What Is Custody”).

The term Visitation refers to the time the child is with one of the parents. The term Visitation is often interchanged with the term “Parenting”—which is actually a better word. The type of Parenting/Visitation can range from one day per year to 364 days per year…just depending on the circumstances. Also, the rules of the Visitation, such as what can and cannot be done during this time, are nearly infinite. (For more information on Visitation, please visit the post titled “What is Visitation”).

Just because both parents have Custody, does not require that the amount of Visitation is equal. On the other hand, just because one parent has Custody, does not require that the parent with Custody has more Visitation than the other parent.

Custody and Visitation are not the same from divorce to divorce and there is almost an infinite amount of arrangements of the two. What works well in one divorce may not work well in another.