My son is 1.5 years old. I am no longer with his dad but he is an active part of my son's life and I would like his dad to help parent him half of the time and he has agreed to do so (keep him Mon-Sun every other week).

I am just worried it would not be beneficial for my son.

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    There are two aspects you are discussing here, the legalities and what is good for your son's well being. We cannot help you with the legalities of the situation, perhaps, if you'd like to reword it to focus on the benefit to your son? As for custody advice, I suggest seeking legal advice – user21179 Nov 17 '13 at 22:07
  • If you cannot afford legal advice, your local librarian may be able to help you locate legal resources in your area. – MJ6 Nov 18 '13 at 4:57
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    Edited to remove the legal question and focus on the benefits to the child part. – Rory Alsop Dec 1 '13 at 8:26
  • Just to help people investigating this (or search engines): This is usually referred to as shared parenting or (particularly in the USA) joint physical custody or shared physical custody. – sleske Dec 1 '17 at 7:59

As long as the dad is responsible parent that takes well being and security of your son seriously then your son will benefit from having both parents in his life. They both can teach the child about life from different perspective and provide relationship that helps with emotional development. Also the dad has the right to have his son as part of his life given that he can fulfill his basic parenting responsibilities.

Can you have basic communication with your former partner about the needs of your child? Is he honest, trustworthy and reliable? Is he emotionally stable and provides safe environment for your child?

I think these are the important questions to ask and think about.

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  • "Do you have good communication with your former partner? " should have no bearing on joint custody – rickyduck Jul 8 '14 at 15:16
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    Dad is taking care of the son every second week which is a substantial amount of time. It is therefore important that they both communicate well because they need to coordinate things such as eating and other habits, preschool/school problems and opportunities, medical conditions such as allergies, after-school programs and activities etc. – zdenekca Jul 19 '14 at 12:27
  • @zdenekca: Yes, that's true - however, I think rickyduck wanted to point out that even if communication is difficult, joint custody can still be valuable to the child (even if it means more hassle for the parents). – sleske Dec 21 '16 at 11:03
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    @sleske I made an update. I think that some basic communication needs to happen between the parents in order to not put the child inadvertently in danger. – zdenekca Jan 2 '17 at 17:50

I think it very beneficial for the child to have both parents in his life. I would suggest though, at this early age, having one week away from his mother (or his father) might be a very long time for him. And you. At early ages, parents often split the time in a 2-2-3 method, which is a cycle that lasts two weeks, and gives each parent a weekend off. A nice resource can be found here.

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  • most excellent booklet/link! – WRX Jan 2 '17 at 22:00

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