3 Tips For Creating An Effective Parenting Plan

If you and your spouse found it hard to come to agreements about the parenting of your children when you were married, it can be even more difficult to achieve this unity once you’re divorced. Because of this, parents are often required to create a parenting plan regarding the care and custody of their children as part of their divorce arrangement. So to help ensure that you’re able to come up with a plan that everyone will be on board with and that will work with each member of your family, here are three tips for creating an effective parenting plan.

Understand Your Child’s Needs

Before all else, you must consider the needs of your children and how your decisions for the parenting plan can and will affect them. According to Leyla Balakhane, a contributor to DivorcedMoms.com, this is especially important when your children are young and still forming bonds with each parent. So while you might not enjoy having to take your child to the other parent’s house, if that’s what’s going to be best for your child and their relationship with both of their parents, it’s important that you’re willing to make some sacrifices for the sake of your children.

Try To Iron Out Even The Smallest Details

If you and your ex had a pretty civil marriage and have been able to keep things amiable throughout your divorce, you might wonder why you should put in the effort to create a parenting plan in the first place. But according to Dr. A Jayne Major, a contributor to ResponsibleDivorce.com, ironing out all the details, even those that might seem unimportant at the present time, can help to prevent or ease a lot of problems that might crop up in the future. So from plans for each holiday to how to handle vacations or payment for certain things for your children, it can be very helpful if you and your ex are able to figure out all the details here and now rather than waiting for a future time.

State How You’ll Communicate With Your Ex

Within your parenting plan, you can and should also create some boundaries for how you’ll communicate with your ex in the future. Because you’re trying to parent your children together, some communication will still be necessary. According to Steven Fritsch, a contributor to DivorceMag.com, you can use almost any type of communication available to both of you, including phone calls, texts, emails, calendar notifications, and more. But for the health of your child, make sure you’re not using him or her as your messenger between you and your ex.

Communication is highly important as time goes on, especially as you and your ex might think about moving on to other partners, potentially even getting married to other people again. You may think people would believe that dating a single parent can be tough, however, there are plenty of understanding people out there who are also in the same boat as you, so if you do plan on getting back on the dating scene, knowing that you are not alone can help.

Which brings us to how you communicate this change to your ex. When you start dating someone, you may not want to tell them right away, or even tell your child as bringing someone new into their life very early on, then taking them away if it doesn’t work out, can be a lot for them to deal with. So, you have to have a plan in place and an understanding with the person you are dating so they know where you stand. Once you have that sorted you can decide who you want to have them meet and when. Keeping the lines of communication open is important, just don’t feel pressured into letting your ex know every little thing, just make sure to keep your child/children in mind at all times.

If you’re about to create a parenting plan with your ex spouse, consider using the tips mentioned above to help ensure you’re able to create something effective for yourself and your children.