Family Lawyers
As a divorced parent, it can be difficult to work with your former spouse on matters related to your children. A child custody attorney understands how difficult custody issues can be. However, successful co-parenting is essential to your children’s health and happiness, making it imperative that you figure out how to do it.
Keep in mind that co-parenting does not mean you have to spend time with your former spouse following a divorce. It simply means finding a way to collaborate with them for the benefit of your children. Here are six tips that the child custody attorneys from our firm suggest to our clients for successful co-parenting:
- Ensure Your Children Are Your Top Priority
Regardless of how you feel about your former spouse, always ensure that your children are your top priority. When you are in a situation where you cannot agree with your former spouse, be sure to make a decision that has your children’s best interests in mind.
- Respect Each Other
Although it may be easier said than done, you and your former spouse should respect one another at all times, especially when you are in front of your children. This will make co-parenting easier and set a good example for your children.
- Communication with Each Other Directly
In order to prevent your children from feeling like they are caught in the middle, you should make sure they are not the messenger between you and your ex spouse. Try to make a conscious effort to always communicate with each other directly.
- Be Consistent
If your children are living under two separate roofs, it’s important that the same rules and expectations are set in both households. Therefore, you should work with your ex-spouse to establish these rules and expectations and stick to them. By doing so, you can help avoid confusion and provide your children with consistently.
- Create a Calendar
You should set up a meeting with your children and ex-spouse to create a calendar of off days from school, extracurricular activities, and parenting time. Google Calendar and various websites can help you do so. A calendar will make it easy for everyone to be on the same page.
- Think Like a Team Member
Keep in mind that you are a member of your children’s parenting team, not a coach. You and your ex-spouse need to work together to achieve the same goal of providing your children with the best possible life despite your divorce.
Contact a Child Custody Lawyer
If you are going through a divorce and need assistance with custody, child support, designing a parenting plan or would like some more tips on how to successfully co-parent, you should contact an experienced child custody lawyer.