Welcome to episode three of notsecondclassdads.ca. Title today’s taking custody in the old days certainly here in British Columbia, Canada. There was reference to the term custody, as it relates to the children. The mother or the father could have sole custody, or the parties could share joint custody of the children. 

Sole custody typically meant that one parent had sole decision making authority and maintained the children’s primary residence. 

Joint custody typically meant that the parties shared decision making authority, but had nothing to do with which of the parents maintained the children’s residence, or how much parenting time each parent exercised with the children. For example, parents could share joint custody of the children while actually only having nominal parenting time. 

Now here in British Columbia, the term guardianship of the children is typically used. If parties are the biological parents and have exercised parenting time surrounding the birth of the child, the parents are considered to be both guardians of the children. 

Joint guardians are entitled to share decision making authority or parental authority as it’s called with respect to the children. Sometimes parents, one parent or the other, will have final decision making authority. However, the term joint Guardian, as it was with the term 

joint custody, has absolutely nothing to do with how much parenting time a mother or father has with the children. 

Here in British Columbia and elsewhere in Canada, there is now a phrase called shared parenting. 

Shared parenting is a statement where each parent has not less than 40% and not more than 60% of parenting time with the children over the course of a year. In those cases, both parents would pay child support to the other. 

I like to refer to the term relationship rather than other terms, because it encompasses not only the requirement to share decision making, but also the maintenance of quality parenting time, which is the only way to protect and preserve a mother or father’s relationship with their children. 

So don’t be confused or overwhelmed with legal labels or phrases. It’s best to understand their true meaning before signing or consenting to anything. 

That’s it for today’s episode, for notsecondclassdads.ca.