146 DIVorCe wItH DeCenCY
they are actively involved in their kid’s existence is one way
of doing just that.
Joint Physical Custody
Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other.
—Laurence J. Peter
Most joint physical custody approaches contemplate literally
dividing the time the child physically spends with each parent
in some sort of roughly half-half configuration. It does not have
to consist of half of each individual week. It can be set up as
one week on/one week off, or six months/six months, or per-
haps alternating years. Any of these approaches can be difficult
to implement, but if done right can be extremely rewarding.
Joint physical custody requires maximum communication
between the parents and brings several mature parenting skills
into play. Two former spouses who still argue every time they
see one another are obviously going to have a problem with joint
physical custody. Likewise, some couples’ logistical situations
present nearly insurmountable problems. For example, if two par-
ents now reside in different states, they obviously will have a
problem implementing joint physical custody.
In my own family, my wife and her ex-husband shared joint
physical custody of their son. Thus, I know from personal expe-
rience, having raised this wild and crazy teenage stepson, that it
becomes very tricky logistically to choreograph the transitions
back and forth between one week with one parent and the next
week with the other. It is not impossible to pull this off, how-
ever, and many people feel that it is worth the extra effort (and
the economic cost) that often accompanies this joint approach to
custody.
Some financial fallout factors. Joint physical custody also has the
side effect of substantially reducing the monthly child-support
amount (often cutting it in half), since each party is now caring
for the child half of the time. Also, the total cost involved in rais-
ing children under a physical joint custody format almost inevi-
tably increases because duplicate homes have to be equipped