How Can Parents Create Effective Co-Parenting Plans?

Separation or divorce is challenging for any family, but if both parents are committed to the best interests of their kids, then creating an effective co-parenting plan is absolutely possible. It can provide the structure your children need during this transition, and a child custody lawyer experienced in family law can help you build a plan that fits your family’s needs and will pass muster with the courts.

How to Build an Effective Co-Parenting Plan

The Child’s Best Interest

Your first job is to keep every decision centered on what helps your child feel loved and stable and will contribute best to their ability to thrive for the long term. Start by sitting down, together or even separately at first, and listing what your child’s daily life looks like right now. Here are some things to consider:

• School start times
• Bedtime routines
• Favorite activities
• Doctor visits (Who usually takes them?)
• Homework help (Who usually helps them?)
• Diet (Who usually feeds them? Who shops?)

Write these details out so you can build a schedule around your child as much as possible instead of forcing big changes onto them. This simple step prevents confusion and helps your child keep the same friends, teachers, and basic rhythm of life as much as possible. 

Weekly Schedule

Next, create a clear weekly schedule that shows exactly when your child will be with each of you. Include regular weekdays, weekends, and overnights (you’ll figure in holidays and breaks later: at first, just plan for “normal.”) Factor in your work hours and your child’s age, too, because younger kids often need shorter stretches away from their primary home at first, while older children can handle longer visits. Put the schedule in writing and post copies in both homes. This not only reduces the possibility of arguments between you and your spouse but also gives your child something reliable to count on. 

Plan for the Abnormal

Holidays, school breaks, and vacations need to be planned for, too. Decide in advance who gets Christmas Eve, Thanksgiving, the first week of summer, etc, and remember that you can make this plan truly yours if you can agree and show it’s in your child’s best interest. Maybe you want to rotate through all the big holidays each year, or maybe you would like to have your child with one parent for all major holidays one year and with the other parent the next year. Think about birthdays, long weekends, and your child’s relationship with grandparents, uncles and aunts, and cousins on both sides of the family. 

Major Decisions

Spell out who will handle healthcare choices, both routine and major; school enrollment; religious activities; and extracurriculars. Some parents split these areas entirely, while others set some basic ground rules and then agree to discuss everything else important. Day-to-day choices, like bedtime or screen time, can usually stay with whichever parent has the child at the time, but the overall routine should be as close to the same as possible in both homes. 

Talk to a Child Custody Lawyer

Call us today at Davis, Chapman, & Wilder, LLC in Augusta, GA to request a consultation. We offer compassionate help, and we can assist you in developing a plan that the courts will approve, your family can live with, and that’s in the best interests of your child.

Tags: co-parenting plan, Family law
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