16. What is the difference between legal custody and physical custody?

Custody has two parts: legal and physical.

Legal custody: the right to make major decisions about your child. This includes where your child goes to school, what kind of religious training a child receives, whether your child gets surgery.

Physical custody: who the child lives with on a day-to-day basis. A parent with primary physical custody is sometimes called the "custodial parent" or the child's "primary caretaker."