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→Parental responsibilities and decision-making responsibility
Parental responsibilities and decision-making responsibility are both about making important decisions on behalf of children, from where they go to school to how they're treated when they get sick. The big difference 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 exercise their authority in the best interests of their children.
If the parents can’t agree on how to share parental responsibilities or decision-making responsibility, judges and arbitrators can make orders and awards about how they'll be shared. These orders and awards can be general or very specific. Sometimes a judge or an arbitrator will make a general order or award that parents will share this authority and must talk to each other before exercising their authority and making a decision about a child. If necessary, a judge or an arbitrator can make a specific order or award that only one parent will have this authority, or make an order or award that each parent will have the authority to make certain decisions but not others. An order or award like this might say that one parent has sole responsibility for making health care decisions, while the other has sole responsibility for making decisions about education, and they both have responsibility for making decisions about their child's extracurricular activities.
The different kinds of decisions that fall under ''decision-making responsibility'' is provided at section 2(1) of the ''Divorce Act'':