As a person (stepmom) who has spent the past 2.5 years in and out of court fighting for what should just be naturally given to fathers (50/50 custody) I can say this.. DO NOT PLAY FAST AND LOOSE WITH A VERBAL AGREEMENT. Everything.. Down to pick up and drop off times needs to be written and signed off on by a judge. Obviously, the hope is that at some point you would be friendly enough to not use the court ordered parenting agreement- but you absolutely have to have one to fall back on if things go south. For example- we fought, and won 50/50 custody and had written into our agreement everything from number of days each parent had to notify the other before leaving state with child (for vacation,) to which parent gets to hold birthday party with classmates each year (alternate) Obviously we were hoping it needn't be that granular, but the situation with bio-mom was such that it had to be done. Now- everyone gets along famously. And we do things more on the fly. But that parenting agreement is filed, and in safe-keeping for if it ever is NOT hunky-dory again. Child Support- as previous posters have mentioned- is pretty cut and dry. it's a math formula based on income and time spent with each parent. My last word of advise- get 50/50 as quickly as you can on the books. Father's rights in this country are a joke- and if you agree to anything less, it will take you YEARS to make it to that 50/50. (we do a 5-2-2-5 schedule which is the preffered method in CO. 7 days on and 7 days off is more rare) PM me if you have questions. we've been in and out of the wringer with this.
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