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→Parental responsibilities and decision-making responsibility
===Parental responsibilities and decision-making responsibility===
Parental responsibilities and decision-making responsibility are all about the job of parenting children. "Parental responsibilities" is the term used by the provincial ''Family Law Act''; "decision-making responsibility" is the term used by the federal ''Divorce Act''. They both mean pretty much the same thing. Remember that the ''Divorce Act'' only applies to people who are, or used to be, married to each other, while the ''Family Law Act'' applies to parents and to other people regardless of whether the paretns parents are married spouses, unmarried spouses, just dating or something else.
Parental responsibilities and decision-making responsibility are both about making decisions on behalf of children. The big difference between the ideas is that parents exercise parental responsibilities during their relationship and after it breaks down, while decision-making responsibility only becomes important when married spouses go to court after they separate. But whether we're talking about parental responsibilities or decision-making responsibility, parents and guardians of a child must always exercise their authority in the best interests of their children.