Adultery

One of the more common questions I get in a custody case is how does my extramarital relationship hurt my chances for custody?  How the issue is to be legally addressed was stated by the Mississippi Supreme Court in Carr. v. Carr, 480 So.2d 1120 (Miss.1985). In Carr, the chancellor found both parents fit to have custody, but ultimately awarded physical custody to the father based on the mother's adultery. The Mississippi Supreme Court held: " [T]he fact of adultery alone does not disqualify a parent from custodianship[,] but ... the polestar consideration in original custody determinations is the best interest and welfare of the minor child." Carr, 480 So.2d at 1121. However, the supreme court nonetheless upheld the chancellor's decision stating: " It is apparent that the analysis considered adultery as but one factor in the overall consideration." Id. at 1123. 

What this amounts to is that adultery is a fact the Court has to consider.  The better question from my experience concerns more of how the affair did or did not affect the ability of the parent to care for their children and where the children were when the acts were taking place?    From a practical standpoint I have noticed that chancellors seem to give more weigh to women having affairs than men.  Right or wrong, the logic seems to be that typically with homemaker spouses that they were presumably neglecting the children and the performance of certain household duties in order to have the affair.