Over the last month I have covered a lot of different topics related to children and divorce. Today I would like to wrap up the first month of 2008 with a discussion of parenting plans.
The parenting plan is a tool that is used by divorce parents to map out their relationship with each other and their children over the years between the divorce and when their children turn 18. In some cases slightly longer. When drafting this tool you need to think about current needs and future needs of both your children and your relationship with your co-parent.
One problem that many parents face when they draft their initial parenting plan is that their life is in the middle of a transition phase. It is difficult to know what schedules, money issues and child care issues you’ll face in a year, five years, or ten years down the road. Because of this, you need to include information about how changes can be implemented to the parenting plan down the road. Setting up a standard change request process while creating the initial parenting plan is crucial for smooth updates to the parenting plan down the road.
A standard change request process will need to include the following elements:
Standard divorce parenting plans need to be designed to make sure the needs of the family unit made up of children and divorced parents are being met and designed to ensure that children cope with divorce affectively.
