These reports can be very important to a judge in making the custody decision, so the impressions you make on the social service person will be very important. The court will look at the child's age, sex, and maturity level, whether it has any special needs, whether long or short term, and then the parent's age, temperament, morals, character and fitness, resources, health, and career plans, among other areas the judge may deem relevant and helpful. The best overall course of action is to first get a competent family law attorney to help you, but then try to reach custody arrangements that both parties can live with if there is any way possible. And then follow the agreements you have made. The custody orders are not easy to change, and usually then only if circumstances have significantly changed, or if one party is refusing to obey the custody order.
Judges start to take that personally, and can lower contempt citations on an offending party.
That can mean jail time. To say nothing of increased attorney fees . I acted as the attorney in a few divorce cases, until I got my practice to the point I didn't have to do them any more. No way was he going to let her have the stereo. How was she going to keep sane with two kids under foot without music, she demanded to know.