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* how to locate resources for separating and separated parents.
When parents separate, there is 's a lot more at stake than just where the children are going to be living tomorrow. Parents have an obligation to think in the long-term, and take a perspective that looks years down the road. How is their conflict going to affect their children? How can both parents maintain meaningful roles in their children's lives? How will the children adapt to the separation? When the children are older and look back on their childhood, what will they think of their parents' separation? And, perhaps most importantly, how can the children best be helped to grow and mature into adults with families of their own?
There's a lot more involved in making decisions about parenting after separation than what you'll find in the ''Divorce Act'' and the ''Family Law Act''. The romantic relationship between the parents may be over, but they'll always be parents , no matter the nature of their relationship with each other. Parents Separated parents have a duty to their children to try to overcome their differences after separation and always put their children first, no matter how hard it is for them to cope with the emotional and legal issues that arise from the breakdown of their relationship with each other.
===The ''Divorce Act'' and the ''Family Law Act''===
For married spouses, the law about parenting after separation is governed by the federal ''Divorce Act'' and the provincial ''Family Law Act''. For unmarried spouses and other unmarried parents, the only law that applies is the ''Family Law Act''. Although married spouses can ask for orders under both the ''Divorce Act'' and the ''Family Law Act'', it's usually best to just pick one act or the other to deal with issues about parenting after separation.
The ''Divorce Act'' talks about parenting after separation in terms of married spouses who have "decision-making responsibilities" for their children and have "parenting time" with their children. The ''Divorce Act'' started using this language on 1 March 2021. Before then, the ''Divorce Act'' talked about married spouses who had "custody" of their children and "access" to their children. The new language focuses more on the interests of children than the rights of parents, and is very similar to the language used by the ''Family Law Act''. ''Decision-making responsibilities'' are the responsibilities parents have to make important decisions on behalf of their children, about things like where the children go to school, how they're treated when they get sick and which sorts of extracurricular activities they'll participate in. Under the old ''Divorce Act'', people with custody had the responsibility for making decisions like these. (People other than married spouses may be able to ask for decision-making responsibilities when there's already a court proceeding under the ''Divorce Act''.) ''Parenting time'' is the schedule of the time that each parent has with their children. Under the old ''Divorce Act'', we talked about the children's schedule in terms of "access, " but "access" only referred to the schedule of the parent who saw the children the least. (People other than married spouses may be able to ask for parenting time, when there's already a court proceeding under certain conditionsthe ''Divorce Act''.)
A person who has decision-making responsibilities or parenting time is entitled to get information about the education, health and wellbeing of their children from anyone who has that information. A person who has parenting time is also entitled to make day-to-day decisions about the children during their parenting time, including emergency decisions.
Orders about decision-making responsibilities and parenting time are called "parenting orders." Agreements about decision-making responsibilities, and parenting time and contact are called "parenting plans." If you have an old agreement or order that talks about custody and access, you don't need to get a new agreement, award or order. What you need to do is understand how the new language applies to your agreement, award or order: *'''Custody:''' If you have custody of your children, whether you had sole, joint or shared custody of your children, you now have ''decision-making responsibilities'' for your children. However, if your agreement or order limited the sort of decisions you could make on behalf of your children, those limits still apply.*'''Access with custody:''' If you have custody of your children and access to your children, you and their other parent now have ''parenting time'' with your children and ''decision-making responsibilities'' for your children. The time the children are with you is now your parenting time, and the time the children are with their other parent is the other parent's parenting time. However, if your agreement or order limited the sort of decisions you could make on behalf of your children, those limits still apply. *'''Access without custody:''' If you have access to your children but not custody of your children, you have ''parenting time'' with your children but you don't have any ''decision-making responsibilities'' for your children. It's important to know that the language in the updated ''Divorce Act'' doesn't give anyone any more rights than they had before.
====GuardiansThe ''Family Law Act'', guardianship, parental responsibilities and parenting time====
The ''Family Law Act'' talks about people who are ''guardians''. Guardians are usually, but not always, the parents of a child. They can include people who are parents because of an assisted reproduction agreement. People other than parents may be able to ask for a court order appointing them as a guardian of a child, under certain conditions. Parents who are not guardians can be appointed as a guardian of their child by making an agreement with the child's other guardians or by asking for a court order appointing them as a guardian. Guardians have "parental responsibilities" for their children and have "parenting time" with their children.