Some mothers lose custody of their children because when the father files a lawsuit for visitation or custody, the mother assumes that mothers automatically get custody or mothers can dictate the visitation that the father will have with his kids. Nothing is further from the truth. In fact, if you do not take the litigation that the father of your children has filed seriously, you could potentially lose custody of your kids because you do not need to be unfit to lose primary custody of your children. Sometimes the judge will simply believe that it is in the best interests of the children to be in the primary physical custody of their father.