When can my child decide which parent they want to live with?

There’s no fixed age – not anymore anyway. Decades ago, it used to be 14 years old but locking in one age was too rigid and didn’t cater for each individual child and their many differences. These days, the weight which a Court places on a child’s views will depend on the child’s maturity, level of understanding, the reason for their view and whether their view has been unreasonably skewed by another person. Broadly speaking, the Courts find that children in their early teens start to tick more of these boxes. If the child is younger than that, you may need to identify special features which distinguish your child and demonstrate that they have a higher level of maturity and understanding than other children their age.