Legal Custody This custody option gives you the right and responsibility to decide about the upbringing of your child. Legal custody means you can decide for your child in terms of healthcare, schooling, and religious upbringing. Most states allow parents to have joint legal custody of their children, so both parents can make decisions involving the child. Once all of these have been identified, it will be easier to turn the bad ones into good ones and there would also be greater chances of making the positive ones better. If these personal efforts won t work, parents who have loss custody of their kids might need to seek professional help. Experts such as a psychologist can help you maintain your emotional and mental health same with counselors who you can talk to regarding the painful experience that you went through when you loss the child custody case. This is an educated approach to overcoming depression as well as anxiety because the process involves making the person face the fear "face to face". Since anxiety is the main culprit for having unstable emotional and mental state after losing a child custody case, people who are experiencing this are advised to various techniques that would help them relax such as meditation and deep breathing as well as muscle relaxation. (TIP: Get a copy from Sourcebooks as well as in Nolo Press that regularly publish state-specific books and also visit Findlaw.com if you need more and updated pieces of information regarding the child custody laws of the state that you belong to.) Aside from reading books and visiting online sites that offer free information on child custody cases, it would be advisable to talk to somebody an immediate family member, a friend or a neighbor who went through the same things. Parents should do well to negotiate a fair parenting agreement that should reflect the overall best interest of their child (or children). This can be done out of court or through alternative dispute resolution service such as a mediator. Temporary custody If there is no agreement between the parents, a temporary child custody schedule may be ordered by a judge. This is a great consideration whether an out-of-court settlement has been reached by both parents and their lawyers or a custody decision is made by a family court. What do the child s best interests involve? Read on to learn more about how custody decisions are made based on this approach. Essentially, the best interests of the child means that all discussions and decisions regarding the custody and visitation of a child are made with an ultimate goal: promoting and nurturing the security, physical and mental health, happiness, and emotional development of the child.