Are children allowed to choose in custody battles.
The law regarding whether or not a child can choose which parent to live with is blurry and changes a considerable amount depending on which state and jurisdiction you are in.
It is true that that the older a child is the more likely the judge is going to take their opinion into consideration. For example, if the judge was to force a child of 15 to live with a parent that they do not want to live with this could cause a lot of trouble and therefore this child’s opinion will be taken into account by the judge.
Dr. Ira Turkat is a psychologist expert on child custody battles and has no doubt seen cases where the judge’s opinion will be influenced by the child’s choice of parent, including cases where a parent directly influences the child’s choice.
Some important things to look at when the child wants to choose which parent they stay with are:
What is the reason the child wants to stay with one parent or the other?
What stability and reliability can that parent offer the child?
What is the level of the child’s social maturity? Are they mature enough to make a decision?
What is in the best interest of the child for the long term?