At What Age Does A Child Have a Say in Custody?

🧒 FREE Child’s Best Interest Checklist
✔️ Know what factors the judge will look at when deciding custody arrangements.

There is a misconception that once a child reaches a certain age usually 12, 13, 14 that he or she gets to choose which parent to live with.

In my experience that's not the case. The ages of the child and the wishes of the child is just one factor that the court has to look at. The court has to look at all of the best interest factors.

So when thinking about what the child wants you need ask yourself:

- Can the child reason?
- If so, does the child have a preference about which parent they want to live with?
- If so, what are the child's reasons?

If a child is telling you that they want to live with you, how is that coming about?

- Are you probing the child or is the child just brining this up spontaneously.
- Has the child expressed this wish to anyone else besides you?

You may be wondering how a court is going to know what your child wants? Is the court going to make my child get on the stand and testify? My answer is probably not. What I have seen is:

- Judges interviewing & talking to the child in chambers
- Letters that a child wrote and gave to the parent

What I see most frequently is a child being interviewed by a neutral third party usually some sort of mental health professional that is appointed by the court:

[jimcole]

How about when the child has been bullied by the parent that they are living with to keep the child for themselves? All the while, the bullying parent denegrates the other parent based on anger, not facts?

[owie]

I’m turning 15 on the 8th I have a question regarding about my drug abusing step father and neglectful mother. So I’ve been living with a grandparent for a good 6 months because of how sick my mom makes me feel I feel like she left me for a man. She is in her 40s and married a 27 year old alcoholic. My grandparents are the only people I feel safe with and it really sucks to say that. Well anyway the question is do the same rules apply if I want to live with a grandparent because I feel and can prove I have an unfit mother. I want my grandparents to have full custody of me. Not my biological mom since I don’t know my dad.

[fygi-drea]

Can you do a video on the steps to take and how to handle when the defendant does not respond to the petition for child custody. The very first petition. Its been 35 days and they had 20.

[nanaosei]

My son turned 11 in April, there is alot of emotional abuse in his father's home coming from his father and step mother. I have addressed it with his father and he advised he has to talk to our son that way in order to push him. They call him dumb and make fun of his weight, his father even admitted his wife says alot of terrible things but she always apologizes later. My son texts me everytime he is insulted and iften calls crying and I have records. Will the courts honor his wishes?

[akstylez_ak]

Why is it that children seem to be cemented with the mother with no wiggle room to experience life living with their dad out of their whole 18-21 years of life. This is like child imprisonment don’t you think🤷🏽‍♀️