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Child Custody
If you cannot amicably settle the issue on custody arrangement with your spouse privately, then you must resort to judicial resources to determine who between you must have custody or visitation over your young child or children.
Best Interests Standard
The prevailing standard that judges use in helping them determine who should have child custody is the best interests standard. This means that custody determinations must be based solely upon what will be in a child's future best interests, and not on the gender of the custodial parent. Majority of the states have now included the best interest standards into their custody statutes, albeit there is considerable variation in the definition of the custody arrangements.
Sole and Joint Custody
If the court awards sole or exclusive custody to you, you have primary authority to rear the child as you see fit as regards education, discipline, health, religious training and other aspects. The non-custodial parent will have rights which are usually limited to fixed amounts of child visitation, and the right to be consulted as regards major child-rearing decisions.
Most states today prefer the shared or joint custody arrangement. Joint custody does not, however, necessarily mean shared physical custody. When the court awards joint legal custody, both parents maintain shared decision-making authority over most major decisions which affect the child, although the physical custody is awarded exclusively to one parent.
A common joint custody arrangement is for your child to spend the school year with you and vacations with the other parent. If you live near the other parent, you may want to divide up the week. You can have part of the week spent with you and the other part of the week with the other. There are jurisdictions that use a presumption in favor of a joint custody and may even authorize the court to award joint custody over the objection of any parent.
You need to consult your lawyer to obtain more details about child custody considerations.