St. Paul, MN family law attorney Thomas Tuft talks about the trends he sees in the area of custody. He notes that there has been a long-developing trend in custody arrangements, with parents now more frequently sharing joint and equal custody. Joint custody, he notes, refers to the daily care and control of the children, and whereas this responsibility once primarily fell to mothers, it has now shifted toward much more equal arrangements. In his experience, equal custody has become the most common expectation.

He adds that another major shift has been in how the law treats custody. While the statute still defines custody as the daily care and control of the children, the legal implications of that label have changed significantly. In the past, custody status directly impacted parenting time, child support, and even the ability of a parent to move out of state, which made the custody label heavily contested. However, legislative changes have stripped those implications away from the custody designation. As a result, he observes that while parents may still dispute parenting time, there are far fewer battles over the custody label itself.