Child Custody Visitation and Physical Custody - What are the Differences?

When most people here the words “Child Custody” they think about the child living arrangements. When you throw in the words “Child Visitation” they get a “deer in the headlights” look and you can see the wheels turn. Unless you’re an attorney or have been through your own child custody process, you may not know what they mean or what the difference is.

First, let’s look at “Physical Custody”. This is the legal right of the parent to have the child live with them. This doesn’t automatically mean that it is an exclusive right, as you can also have “joint physical custody” which means that both parents have a legal right to have the child live with them and they must establish a visitation schedule.

Visitation is the actual schedule that is worked out between the parents to define when the child will visit with each parent (regardless of who has legal physical custody). Parents without physical custody can still have regular visitation with their child and expect the court to uphold that right.

The important thing to remember here is that these things are not mutually exclusive. That is, you don’t need to have sole physical custody of your child to have visitation and you won’t lose any possibility of visitation if you don’t have sole or joint physical custody.

Don’t be bullied by the other parent if they tell you that they intend to have custody and never let you see the child. Guess what, they don’t have the power to keep you away. The child's best interest is always the courts first responsibility and a child needs to see each parent. So no matter that the other parent says, the child's rights always trump theirs.