Divorce Advice for Men | Fathers Rights Divorce | Child Custody

By William E. Brooks

Author, "My Life In Exile"

Recently, in what should have been a joyous occasion, I became a grandfather. However, I have yet to see my new grandson. 

And what is worse, my son, the father, has only seen his son a handful of times because he is not married to the child’s mother, which effectively gives him zero rights to his child at the moment.

I was aware of the difficulties divorced dads face in trying to maintain a meaningful relationship with their children because I’ve lived through that experience. But now my eyes are opened to a whole new area of need: that of unwed fathers.

Leslie Lorenzano

Cordell & Cordell Divorce Lawyer

When you have a limited amount of parenting time to spend with your children, you want to make every moment count.  Maximizing your parenting time with your children may take planning and creative thought, which can be daunting at times, but there are many options for fun activities to do and places to go with your children.

Each child is different, so he or she may only be interested in a few of the following ideas depending on his or her age, interests, skills, etc., but at least talking to your children about possible activities will show them that you are interested in having a memorable and active time with them when you are together.

Question:

My ex-wife is moving to another state with our children, and we would like to move jurisdiction of our divorce and child custody case to that state since neither of us live in the state where we were divorced.

She is the custodial parent though we technically have joint child custody.

How can I move our case to another state, and what would be the approximate cost of doing so?

By Tara N. Brewer

Special to DadsDivorce.com

A deployed soldier already has to deal with the stress of family separation. Possible changes in child custody and threats to fathers rights during deployment only compound the issue.

A new Pennsylvania bill protects the deployed soldier by stating that no changes in a child custody arrangement can occur with the child of an active-duty military servicemember, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The only exception in changing the child custody arrangement would be for the best interest of the child.  

The new law indicates that a deployed soldier can petition the court for a temporary order to assign child custody rights to family members. Also, the law permits deployed parents to testify via phone, videoconference, or other electronic means if need be.

Question:

I am about start to mediation in the divorce process and my wife is insisting that the mediator is going to side with her on certain child custody and parenting time issues.

I thought mediators were not allowed to make those types of decisions and were only there to help us reach a joint agreement.

Can a mediator dictate our divorce terms? What is a mediator's role in divorce?