Florida child custody laws require certain provisions and allocations to be listed in each child custody final order. These provisions related to the upbringing of the child, they contain rights of the child, responsibility, and timesharing allocations. However, many clients reach confusion regarding the difference between timesharing and parental responsibility. Under the Florida Family Law Rules these are two separate and distinct concepts. Parental responsibility involves the parents’ involvement in the major decisions in the child’s life including health care, school, child care, etc. In Florida there are three types of parental responsibility:
1) Sole Parental Responsibility- applies when only one parent has the right to control all aspects of the child’s life;
2) Shared Parental Responsibility- occurs when the parents must jointly make decisions on all parenting decisions; or