Q: Will my baby's father be able to get custody or just visitation?
We broke up over a month ago, and since then I've allowed him to see the baby whenever he wanted. He's only seen him twice since then. He is threatening me that he will "make the next 18 years" hell for me and that he is taking me for custody and getting a paternity test. We lived together for 6 months before and during those months he has barely helped me with our son at all and was sleeping all day, staying up all night playing video games. He is a very heavy sleeper, and once I came home to the baby screaming in the swing for what it looked like to be a long time while he was sleeping right next to him. He has no job, he says he'll get an apartment and take the baby there with him alone but I don't trust him at all. Its in my best belief that he can't take care of the baby alone. I live with my parents right now with the baby and we take care of him and he has a stable loving home here. I have a part time job and take care of him when I'm not at work.
A:
Well, first of all, a child custody vocabulary lesson. "Legal custody" is the parental right to take part in the major decisions in a child's life, like medical, educational, religious, etc. "Physical custody" refers to where the child actually resides from day to day.
Regardless of where the child actually sleeps each night, courts usually award each parent "joint legal custody" so that both parents get to be involved with the major decisions regarding the child -- so he'd likely get joint legal custody, and so would you. Your question actually deals "physical custody," so let's talk about that.
Pennsylvania law no longer uses the term "visitation," although regular folks do. Under Pennsylvania law, there is instead "shared physical custody," "primary physicial custody" and "partial physical custody." Shared physical custody is where two parents have pretty close to 50/50 time with the child. Primary physical custody means that one parent has much more time with the child than the other parent. Partial physical custody is the new term for "visitation," and a parent that has partial physical custody has the child for less than 40% of the time.
It sounds like a court would award you primary physical custody, and him partial physical custody -- esp. based on that being the actually reality now. But I strongly suggest that you consult with (and hire) a good, local family law attorney to make sure that happens, because nutty things can happen in court. Best of luck to you.
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