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Divorce is often bitter, especially when children are involved. They often suffer not only emotionally but also health-wise when their parents separate. This is shown by a study by the University of Bergen from 2020. According to this, the health of children of divorce worsens especially when their relationship with their father cools down. According to the Norwegian researchers, anxiety, depression and stress can be the result.
The classic German divorce scenario is still that children live with their mother after their parents separate and usually see their father every other weekend. This is only partly related to custody: After a divorce, this continues to rest with the mother and father, unless the family court sees good reasons to withdraw custody from one parent.
In addition to financial custody and health care, custody also includes the right to determine the place of residence for the common child. Parents who share custody after a divorce must agree with whom the children will live in the future. If they cannot find a common denominator, the family court decides. The result determines which parent has to pay child support.
Minor children are generally entitled to maintenance from their parents. This also applies if you earn money yourself, for example with a part-time job or training. Adult children also receive maintenance under certain conditions, namely if they are still going to school, completing training or studying and are also unmarried. You don’t even have to live in your parents’ apartment. A child is therefore not only entitled to maintenance if their parents are divorced. As soon as a parent no longer lives with their child – for example due to a divorce – maintenance issues usually have to be renegotiated.
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