In terms of child custody, status quo, again, really, really is the norm. If you have been the only parent that this 6-year-old has known for the entirety of his or her life, it is very unlikely that the court is going to give a half-time custody to dad. That being said, courts very much want kids to have relationships with both parents. So while joint custody generally means fifty-fifty, it doesn’t to the court. What it means to the court there are two parents who are actually exercising custodial time with the child, no matter what the percentages are. So if dad now, 6 years later, wants to be a part of the picture, the court will probably implement some way to make him a part of the picture in a reasonable manner that gives your child a chance to get to know his father, start exercising time with him, maybe during the day, maybe a couple days a week for visits and implement him into your child’s life to a point where it’s eventually appropriate for this child to be spending more time. If it’s an issue for you to get to that fifty-fifty, then you really need to tell the co-parent, “We need to take it slow, I don’t know if this is going to work.” By the time you work up to that kind of custody scheme, your kid may be 12 and really wanting to spend more time with his dad. And that could be something that at 12 would be very acceptable to you, especially if it’s a girl and they’re like 13.