New relationships can also factor into a custody determination. Let me start by telling you a little bit about what the law says. There’s case law in North Carolina that says the fact that a parent has engaged in a new relationship, is not enough to warrant a change in circumstances calling for there to be a big change in the custody order.
Know that if you start dating someone – that’s not reason enough for the Judge to see a reason to change that custody order. Where it matters is if it’s having an impact on the kids. If there’s any sort of issue with the new boyfriend or girlfriend having some sort of character issues. If the new boyfriend or girlfriend is there every single time that parent has an overnight with the child, and starts to think that the parent is preoccupied with this new relationship.
Those are going to be instances or reasons where that new relationship is going to have an impact on your custody. But, if you’re simply casually dating someone and you’re doing a very good job of slowly introducing this person to the child, and this new relationship isn’t having a huge impact on the child, then you can expect that that’s not going to have a huge impact on your case.
