How Well Do You Know Criminal Law?How Well Do You Know Criminal Law?

If you are a parent, there are a lot of things that you need to do to be responsible. One of those things is to have a will. You may not want to have a will, thinking that it's a morbid topic, but the fact is, you want to make sure that your child is taken care of if something happens to you. There are a lot of things that a will can do for you and your child, and one of them is to make sure that there is a guardian set up for your minor child. Picking a guardian is an important thing to do, so what do you need to do in order to make sure that you have that ready to go?

Find the Right Person

Finding a guardian isn't as easy as talking to your current bestie and asking them to take care of your kid in case something happens to you. There are actually a lot of things that you need to do.

You are going to want to make sure that the person you choose is someone who lines up with your personal child-rearing beliefs, your religious beliefs, and who will hopefully keep your child involved with extended family. You want to make sure that you are very familiar with the person and their character before you entrust your precious child to them. Ideally, you want to see if your family can be the people who can be your child's guardian. 

Find an Alternate

Having a backup plan is always a good thing, and it's not any different here. Once you have decided who your child's guardian should be and they have agreed, then you should start thinking about having a backup person, just in case your first choice's situation changes and they aren't able to take your child if something happens.

When you write your will and set up your guardianship papers, you should make sure that you specify who will be the primary choice and who should be the secondary choice, and under what conditions the secondary person should take custody. Those conditions could include ill health on the first person's part or on the part of their children, as well as if they moved away or something similar. 

If you are a parent, you should have a will. It's the responsible thing to do. Talk with a lawyer from a firm like Wilson Deege Despotovich Riemenschneider & Rittgers if you have questions about how to create a will.