Originally Posted by
Jazzman 
Woah... hold up here. This is just plain not true. Each parent has equal rights to the children. You can of course AGREE to be an every other weekend Dad, but that is NOT the law. The worst case scenario is 50/50 custody and visitation.
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Here in the sticks a father never gets custody unless the mother is either locked up, dead or so out of it she can’t function.
For a dad to get custody of a child under the age of 14 against the mother’s objections just doesn’t happen.
There is no court ordered 50/50 anything in my state one parent is “awarded” custody and the other is “granted” visitation.
The only way this format is deviated from is by mutual consent of both parents, and if at any time the mother withdraws her consent and moves for sole custody it will be granted.
Every state has different laws, the original poster has retained counsel in his state and my opinion is that following the advice of paid counsel is generally wise.