What You Need To Know When You Create A Parenting Plan After Divorce?
Posted on: 14 January 2020
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Divorce is not an ideal situation, but it happens every day. When you are a parent, the situation can be even more painful. To make the process of co-parenting after a divorce, you need to have a good parenting plan in place. No matter if you and your former spouse get along great, you still need to have a good parenting plan in writing and submitted to the court to keep everyone safe and on the same page. The following are some things you should know about parenting plans:
How Do You Create a Parenting Plan?
The creation of the parenting plan will depend on the relationship you have after your divorce. If the two of you can calmly discuss the needs of your children, you can make all the plans yourself, then submit your plan to the court for approval and implementation. If you cannot get along, you may want to involve a mediator to help you hash out the important details. At the very least, you need to have a sit-down meeting with your spouse and both of your respective attorneys. Having someone there to help facilitate the planning will help a great deal.
What Issues Should You Include in a Parenting Plan?
You should include essentially any detail that involves your children in any way. You may not think some things are important, but it can be a deal-breaker for some parents. Some of the basics include your children's schedules, lists of extra-curricular activities, birthday celebrations, and holidays.
You also need to include less common issues such as rules for overnight stays with other relatives or people the other parent has not met, any sleeping arrangements, meet-up locations, and rules if one of you wants to start a new relationship. Other important factors include vaccinations, religious decisions, school decisions, disciplinary techniques, and curfews. You need to consider all of these factors and make decisions on each of them so everyone knows what to expect.
When you and your former spouse meet, you need to go through all of these items line by line and decide how you will deal with them. This will require some conversation and compromise. Ultimately, you both should be a united front when it comes to your children and how they are raised. You do not want to have one set of rules with one parent and a completely different set of rules for the other. This not only results in inconsistent parenting but also can cause your children to become confused. They may even try to move in permanently with the parent with the less strict rules. You should all be in agreement on all items in your parenting plan. Contact Gomez May LLP to learn more.