A lot has been written and said about what the "best interests of the child" means. Simply put, it means the court focuses on what's best for the child, not what the parents want. Sometimes, parents' needs, like wanting to win in custody battles, become the main issue. However, the court has to decide what is in the child's best interests.

In making this decision, the court will consider all or some of the following factors:​

• The child's relationship with their parents.

• How the parents relate to the child.

• Whether the parents can meet the child's needs, like emotional and intellectual needs.

• How changes in the child's life, such as being away from one parent or siblings, might affect them.

• The child's need to maintain a connection with their family, culture, or tradition.

• The child's age, maturity, gender, and background.

• The child's physical, emotional, social, and cultural development and their security.

• Any disabilities the child may have.

• Any chronic illnesses the child may have.

​There are a number of Custody and Access arrangements which parties may agree upon, or the court may order. They are as follows:

• Primary Parent: This is the most common arrangement. Here the child lives with one parent most of the time, and the other parent gets to spend certain times with the child. These times may be on weekends, weekdays, during school holidays, and through phone or electronic communication.

• Sole Custody with No Access: This is rare and happens when one parent gets sole custody of the child, because the other parent poses a serious risk to the child, like causing him / her physical or emotional harm. In this case, the problematic parent may have no contact with the child at all, or sometimes, supervised visits may be allowed under certain conditions.

• Joint Custody: In this arrangement, there isn't one primary home for the child. Instead, the child spends equal time with both parents, say q week with one parent and a week with the other. The details of how this works can vary, and it requires careful planning.

​When parents can't agree on a custody arrangement, the court gets involved. The court's job is to determine what's best for the child, often by seeking advice from experts, such as psychologists and social workers. Both parties might hire such experts to investigate and provide reports for the trial. The judge will consider all such evidence and then make his decision.​