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Family Justice Division |
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| FAQs: Children's Issues |
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You cannot change your children’s feelings about seeing the other parent overnight. But as the parent with care and control, you can facilitate access by actively encouraging the children to see their other parent. If there is a Court order for access, you must not deliberately prevent your children from seeing the parent with access. You may be punished for breaching the Court order. This punishment may include imprisonment.
You can take steps to try and repair the relationship between the other parent and the children. There are specific programmes available at the Family Court to help you, the parent with access and the children. |
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Every child is different, and will react to the breakdown of the family in a different way. It is very important that you and the other parent do not allow the breakdown of your relationship with each other to affect your individual relationships with your children.
It is best if both of you are able to maintain a good relationship with each other as the parents of your children. You may wish to ask the other parent to attend counselling with you to discuss parenting issues together. If you have already applied for a divorce, you can request a counselling session at the Counselling And Psychological Services (CAPS).
If your children are reacting badly to the breakdown of the family unit, you can request a support counselling session for your children if they are old enough to speak to our counsellors. You may make such a request through your lawyer if you have one, or to the Judge when you attend Court. |
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The Court does not award the children to either parent. Each parent has an equal responsibility for the children. Parental responsibility does not change when parents divorce.
The Court decides two things. The first thing to decide is whether one or both parents should have custody of the children. Custody is the right to make major decisions on the welfare and upbringing of the children. Custody can be shared.
The second thing to decide is which parent has care and control of the children. Care and control is the right to have the children live with you, and to make everyday decisions about them. For practical reasons, care and control normally lies with one parent.
The Court considers the welfare of the child to be the most important factor in making its decisions on custody, care and control. The welfare of the child is a very wide concept. It includes the child’s emotional and physical well-being. It also includes the child’s education, religious and moral upbringing.
When the Court considers the welfare of the child, some relevant factors would be
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the role each parent has played in the child’s life |
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the stability that each parent can offer the child |
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whether the child’s existing care arrangements can be left as they are |
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the child’s age: care and control of a very young child will normally lie with the mother (if the child’s welfare will be equally met by either parent) |
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whether there are siblings: as far as possible, the Court tries not to separate siblings |
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the child’s wishes, if he or she is old enough to express an independent opinion |
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the parents’ wishes: but it is important to note that this factor comes second to the welfare of the child |
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No. If they want to, they can express their views to the Court as to which parent they would like to live with. But the Court will not automatically approve their choice. The Court will make the decision that it feels is in the best interests of the children, and the weight that it gives to your children’s views will depend on their age. The Court will consider your children’s views against all the other circumstances of the case. |
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When the Court decides on custody, care and control, the Court will make an access order to ensure that the parent without care and control will get to see his or her children regularly.
When deciding on the right access order to make, the most important factor to consider is the welfare of the children.
If both parents can co-operate with each other, and would like to keep the access arrangements flexible, then the Court will usually order ‘reasonable access.’ But if the circumstances of the case require the access order to be more specific, then the Court may set out a timetable for access, and any particular conditions to be complied with during access. |
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You may ask the Court to order that the other parent does not have access to the children, but you should be aware that access is only denied if it will harm the children more than it will benefit them.
One option may be to ask for an order for supervised access. This means that access will be granted to the other parent on the condition that you, or a neutral third party such as a relative, are present. A short-term supervised access order may also be made under the Family Court’s Project Contact, run in conjunction with participating Family Service Centres across Singapore. This may be suitable if your children are very young, and the other parent is not able to handle the children on his or her own, or if there are some concerns with his or her interactions with the children. |
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The Women’s Charter says that once a Court order on the children is made, it is a criminal offence to take the children out of Singapore for more than a month without the written consent of both parents, or the Court’s permission.
If you think there is a chance that the other parent may take the children overseas without your permission, you can ask the Court for a clear order that neither you nor the other parent can take the children overseas without the permission of the other parent or the Court. The Court may also order that the children’s passports be kept by you while they are with the other parent.
You must be able to tell the Court why you want these orders to be made. The Court will decide whether it is in the best interests of the children to make such orders. The Court will consider if it is likely that the other parent would take the children overseas without your permission. Some relevant factors would be
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which country the other parent is likely to take the children to |
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whether he or she is a citizen of that country |
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whether he or she has a job or family overseas. |
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