Most people readily acknowledge that shared custody or co-parenting is good for kids when their parents split up unless one parent poses a risk to them. Nonetheless, it is common for people to assume that the benefits for children in shared custody arrangements come at the expense of the parents.
However, financial research about the impact of co-parenting has shown that the opposite is actually true. Splitting custody with your spouse in a divorce will mean that the two of you have to find a way to communicate and cooperate with each other. Still, it gives each parent a better opportunity for personal success and financial independence.
50/50 custody has a correlation with higher earning potential
As you can probably guess, the parent who spends most of their time caring for their children won’t have as much energy or personal resources to dedicate to their career. The more inequitable a child custody arrangement is, the greater the career and earning impact for the parents with more custody time will be.
Parents who split custody evenly are much more likely to have full-time jobs and be earning livable wages. Although you may not look forward to the stress of custody exchanges and figuring out how to coordinate discipline between households, both you and your kids will likely benefit in the long run from shared custody arrangements.
Of course, there are always exceptions to this rule. If you believe that shared custody is not in the best interests of your children, then financial concerns should not be the only consideration when making your decisions about divorce. The more you understand how divorce works in Texas, the easier it will be for you to make decisions that will benefit you and your children during a divorce.