How To Negotiate A Parenting Plan | Santa Clarita Divorce

Part of the divorce process that involves children involves coming up with a parenting plan.  This is a document that discusses the way in which your children live, who with, visitation and your agreements on how you will deal with them.

There are many ways to deal with coming up with a parenting plan.  This includes the same ways we discussed on how to work towards a divorce agreement.  This includes such ideas as meeting face to fact with your spouse to discuss a parenting plan or using a neutral third party such as a friend, family member or mediator to help you come up with a workable solution for a parenting plan for your children.

Parenting plans can have a lot of detail or they can be left fairly open if the spouses are in good communication and feel they can have an open parenting plan.  But a detailed parenting plan deals with a lot more than just the days of the week each of the spouses will have the children.

The more detailed your parenting plan is, the less potential issues you will have down the road when there are disagreements or misunderstandings about what the parenting plan says.  Here, we will give you some ideas on what you may want to include in your parenting plan.

Time Sharing

• Who does pick up and drop off and where?
• Where will the children stay?
• Will there be anyone else who is allowed to pick up the kids?

Rules For Contact When Not On Visitation

• Is contact by email allowed?  Text?
• Phone schedule that allows for communication

Birthdays and Holidays 

• Where and wit who will the kids spend their birthdays?  Will they with the parents?
• Who will set up the birthday parties?
• Will you alternate holidays each year, or each have specific holidays each year?
• Who has the kids on holidays when school is closed?
• Will Dad have them every Fathers Day and Mom every Mothers Day?
• What about long school breaks during the summer and winter?

There is much more to include such as:

• Religion issues
• Where the kids will go to school
• What activities the children will be involved in and who will pay for them?
• Privileges and discipline
• Medical care and insurance

As you can see there is quite a bit that has to go into a parenting schedule.  Leave something out and you risk trouble down the road.  You don’t want to be the family that has to call the police on a Christmas because you and your former spouse did not address who has them this year.