Notes

As in many areas of family law, the standard applied by the Court in making an initial award of physical custody is the so-called “best interest of the child” standard. This standard requires findings by the Court with respect to all relevant factors, including the following factors enumerated by statute: [1] NO SINGLE FACTOR IS CONTROLLING.
In Minnesota, there is no particular age at which a child gets to decide which parent he wants to live with. Generally, the older the child, the more weight the child’s preference carries, whether in the initial custody determination or in the context of a motion to modify custody. [2] For teenage children, this factor is very compelling.
3.
the child's primary caretaker (i.e., who provided the day-to-day physical, emotional, and intellectual care for the child, including such parental functions as the following: preparing and planning of meals; bathing, grooming and dressing; purchasing, cleaning, and care of clothes; medical care, including nursing and trips to physicians; arranging for social interaction among peers after school, e.g., transporting to friends’ houses or , for example to Girl Scout or Boy Scout meetings; arranging alternative care, i.e., babysitting, daycare, etc.; putting child to bed at night, attending to child in the middle of the night, waking child in the morning; disciplining, i.e., teaching general manners and toilet training; educating, i.e., religious, cultural, social, etc.; and teaching elementary skills, i.e., reading, writing, and arithmetic);
If for example a child is acknowledged to be a “Mama’s boy” or “Mama’s girl”, or a “Daddy’s girl,” or Papa’s boy”, this is the kind of evidence which is pertinent in showing the Court that a special bond exists between a child and one or the other parent.
Under Minnesota law, a child never gets to determine where they will reside. After custody has been determined, any change in custody would require a showing that the child is endangered physically, emotionally or developmentally in the current custodial situation and that the benefit of the change in custody outweighs any harm. Children in their late teens may deemed endangered if they have strong feelings about living with one parent or another. The desires of younger children does not have such an impact.

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