{"id":66317,"date":"2022-12-11T23:04:17","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T04:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=66317"},"modified":"2022-12-11T23:04:17","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T04:04:17","slug":"divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/","title":{"rendered":"Divorce: how do children manage life in shared custody?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

When parents separate or divorce, it is very often the mother who obtains custody of the child, accompanied by occasional visits to the father.\u00a0However, over the past twenty years, another\u00a0system has gradually gained momentum<\/a>\u00a0in Europe: joint custody, in which the child resides alternately, and more or less equally, with each of his parents.<\/p>\n

According to INSEE,\u00a0shared residence concerns 12% of children in France<\/a>\u00a0.\u00a0In Belgium, since the\u00a0law of 2006<\/a>\u00a0, this is the mode of accommodation to be considered as a priority after parental separation, when at least one of the two parents requests it and\u00a0more than 30% of young people of separated or divorced parents<\/a>\u00a0live in (almost) equal alternation with their parents.\u00a0That said, in the end, little is known about how they adapt to this lifestyle, as\u00a0existing research<\/a>\u00a0has so far largely focused on the parents’ point of view.<\/p>\n

The book\u00a0Two houses, one home? <\/em><\/a>gives the floor to a panel of 21 children aged 10 to 16.\u00a0Through two to three individual meetings mobilizing participatory sociological methods, the objective was to understand how young people adapt to this daily life in shared custody, between two “houses” with often very different universes, and between which the parents sometimes trace impermeable borders.<\/p>\n

Places of life in \u201carchipelago\u201d<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This sociological research studies in particular the practices deployed by young people on a daily basis to negotiate their place in each of the residences, and to create continuity and benchmarks in mobility.\u00a0In doing so, a metaphor borrowed from the social geographer C\u00e9dric Duch\u00eane-Lacroix appears particularly relevant, namely, that of the\u00a0\u201carchipelization\u201d<\/a>\u00a0of their places of life.<\/p>\n

The children we met see each place of family residence as distinct from the other, while being connected, like the islands making up an archipelago.\u00a0While each island has its own atmosphere \u2013 children attach themselves to it differently depending on whether they feel \u201cat home\u201d there due to the architecture of the place or the family atmosphere, these two islands with different colors form a “whole” within which he navigates and tries to create landmarks.<\/p>\n

The children navigate between parental islands with more or less clear borders, depending on the limits that each parent wishes to draw with the island of his ex-partner.\u00a0Thus, some households take the form of a \u201cfortress\u201d island, the parent wishing to establish an impermeable border with the island of his ex-partner.<\/p>\n

The two places of residence then appear as mutually exclusive: the child cannot go to the home of the other parent outside the fixed schedule, the parent does not wish to maintain virtual contact during the days when the child, and limits as much as possible the transfer of objects and personal effects from one place of residence to another or requires the child to systematically bring them back to the home of the parent to whom they belong.<\/p>\n

At the other extreme, some parents draw an open island, leaving the child free to come and go when he wants, offering him the possibility of communicating with them during the days of absence and taking with him what that he wishes.\u00a0Intermediate configurations exist between these two poles, with limits more or less open to negotiation.\u00a0It is important to note that the father and the mother can each draw islands with different borders from that of their ex-partner, a child being able to sail for example between a \u201cfortress island\u201d and an \u201copen island\u201d.<\/p>\n

These parental islands constitute an important element of context, but young people do not necessarily respect them.\u00a0Thus, some manage to pass personal belongings from one side to the other even if it is not authorized, or, conversely, create borders where there are none, motivated by the desire to distinguish the two homes they frequent.<\/p>\n

The end of the \u201cbig bag\u201d myth<\/strong><\/h4>\n

If some children actually travel, in their own words, with “all” their belongings – lots of clothes, toiletry bag, comforter, school equipment, even video game console, which is a burden, but reassures them by their presence in the everyday life wherever they live \u2013 others, on the contrary, declare that they take “nothing” with them.\u00a0Fixing objects in a particular place offers them landmarks, ensuring that they find a familiar universe each time they return, and relieves them of the mental burden linked to this complicated logistics, especially when parents want to recover what they have bought for their child.<\/p>\n

If these children distinguish each place of life, they also do so according to various logics.\u00a0Some young people differentiate their belongings by using different objects and belongings in each home, like Th\u00e9odore (15) who longs every weekend to go back to his room with the other parent.\u00a0He values \u200b\u200bthis difference because it allows him to do a variety of things each week (like reading comics and playing the Wii at Dad’s or playing in the garden and at the Play Station at Mum’s).<\/p>\n

Others try to create a balance between each dwelling, by distributing their personal effects over the long term in an \u201cequitable\u201d manner.\u00a0Thus, Coralie (12 years old) has decided to permanently leave her game console with her mother and her tablet with her father.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Children distinguish their places of life according to various logics. Shutterstock<\/p><\/div>\n

Maintaining this balance sometimes represents a burden for young people, mainly in relation to the management of the clothes they wear on their arrival and must remember to bring back to their place of origin.\u00a0If some wear them again on the day of the change of house, others carry them in their school bag.\u00a0Still others surround themselves with identical objects at each parent’s home in order to carry out the same activities wherever they live, without having to carry personal effects.<\/p>\n

A great capacity for adaptation<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The socio-economic situation and the educational principles of the parents can influence these practices.\u00a0Some may wish that the items they have purchased do not circulate from one home to another, for fear of having to redo an expense in the event of loss or forgetfulness.\u00a0Others, on the contrary, encourage their child to use one and the same expensive object on each side \u2013 for example, a game console or a computer.\u00a0Driven by ecological or anti-consumerist values, still others may be reluctant to buy their children \u201cdouble\u201d objects or clothing.\u00a0It happens that young people, wishing to travel light, circumvent this obstacle by turning to second-hand circuits.<\/p>\n

Finally, children who bring personal effects do not necessarily unpack them on arrival on an island, preferring to keep them permanently in their suitcase or bag to reduce the mental load of the transition (because their personal effects are always stored in the same place, wherever they reside).\u00a0This way of proceeding saves them from having to think about the essential things to carry and eliminates the risk of forgetting them.<\/p>\n

In addition, the fact that their bag or their suitcase remains visible to the other members of the blended family who live in the place marks the space of the home with their physical imprint and reflects their return among them.\u00a0But past the moment of return, this bag thus exposed also symbolizes their mobility and their forthcoming departure, which reinforces the impression of being only passing through within the parental home.<\/p>\n

Taken together, the practices deployed by the children constitute a diversified range of ways of managing alternation, which testify to the great capacity for adaptation of young people, and which underline the importance of shifting the gaze of adults towards children in order to grasp what is at stake for the very people who experience mobility on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

Author Bio: <\/strong>Laura Merla is Professor of Family Sociology and Berengere Nobels is Doctor of Sociology at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When parents separate or divorce, it is very often the mother who obtains custody of the child, accompanied by occasional visits to the father.\u00a0However, over the past twenty years, another\u00a0system has gradually gained momentum\u00a0in Europe: joint custody, in which the child resides alternately, and more or less equally, with each of his parents. According to […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[434189],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-66317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-shared-custody"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDivorce: how do children manage life in shared custody? - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Divorce: how do children manage life in shared custody? - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When parents separate or divorce, it is very often the mother who obtains custody of the child, accompanied by occasional visits to the father.\u00a0However, over the past twenty years, another\u00a0system has gradually gained momentum\u00a0in Europe: joint custody, in which the child resides alternately, and more or less equally, with each of his parents. According to […]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-12T04:04:17+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/childcustody.jpg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"Divorce: how do children manage life in shared custody?\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-12T04:04:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1309,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/12\\\/childcustody.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"shared custody\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Lifestyle\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\\\/\",\"name\":\"Divorce: how do children manage life in shared custody? - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/12\\\/childcustody.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-12T04:04:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/12\\\/childcustody.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/12\\\/childcustody.jpg\",\"width\":680,\"height\":453},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Divorce: how do children manage life in shared custody?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\",\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin\"},\"description\":\"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/author\\\/kevin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Divorce: how do children manage life in shared custody? - World leading higher education information and services","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Divorce: how do children manage life in shared custody? - World leading higher education information and services","og_description":"When parents separate or divorce, it is very often the mother who obtains custody of the child, accompanied by occasional visits to the father.\u00a0However, over the past twenty years, another\u00a0system has gradually gained momentum\u00a0in Europe: joint custody, in which the child resides alternately, and more or less equally, with each of his parents. According to […]","og_url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/","og_site_name":"World leading higher education information and services","article_published_time":"2022-12-12T04:04:17+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/childcustody.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Kevin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"headline":"Divorce: how do children manage life in shared custody?","datePublished":"2022-12-12T04:04:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/"},"wordCount":1309,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/childcustody.jpg","keywords":["shared custody"],"articleSection":["Lifestyle"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/","name":"Divorce: how do children manage life in shared custody? - World leading higher education information and services","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/childcustody.jpg","datePublished":"2022-12-12T04:04:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/childcustody.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/childcustody.jpg","width":680,"height":453},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/divorce-how-do-children-manage-life-in-shared-custody\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/world.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Divorce: how do children manage life in shared custody?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/","name":"World leading higher education information and services","description":"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee","name":"Kevin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin"},"description":"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.","sameAs":["https:\/\/world.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/author\/kevin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66317"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66326,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66317\/revisions\/66326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66317"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=66317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}