Creating a parenting plan is an important task for parents who are no longer together but share custody of their child. This is true whether a former couple is divorcing or an unmarried former couple is going their separate ways.
If you and your ex never married, you share a child and your relationship is at an end, know that a well-thought-out parenting plan can help minimize conflict and provide a stable environment for you and your child alike.
Custody and parenting time schedules
Cooperation and a willingness to compromise are important as you’re working with your ex – or with your ex’s legal team via your own – to reach joint decisions about facilitating your child’s welfare. It’s generally wise to start by determining custody arrangements and parenting time schedules, as these concerns are foundational. Once these concerns are resolved, you can turn to more niche and detail-oriented matters with a solid understanding of your base arrangements informing those supplemental discussions.
Your parenting schedule should outline when your child will be with each parent, including weekdays, weekends, holidays and school vacations. This schedule should be informed by each parent’s work schedule, the child’s school and extracurricular activities and the proximity of each parent’s residence. Flexibility and regular review of the schedule can inform changes as the child grows and their needs evolve.
Clarifying responsibilities
Your parenting plan should clearly define how major decisions regarding your child’s education, healthcare, extracurricular activities, screen usage, religious upbringing, etc. will be made. Parents can generally choose joint decision-making, where both have an equal say or allocate specific areas of decision-making to one parent. Clear guidelines can prevent misunderstandings and better ensure that both parents are involved in their child’s life. If mutually agreeable expectations cannot be reached, a judge will need to step in.
Similarly, striving to address mutually agreeable financial responsibilities in your parenting plan can help avoid disputes. While child support is generally determined by the courts, your plan can address expectations concerning medical expenses, extracurricular activities and other costs related to your child’s upbringing. This can allow both you and your ex to better ensure that your child’s needs are met, especially if you have concerns that cannot be adequately addressed by baseline, broad child support orders.
If and when in doubt, keep in mind that your parenting plan should prioritize your child’s best interests. Both parents should consider their child’s emotional, physical and developmental needs when making decisions. If you do that, it will be difficult to go wrong.
