When you’re going through child custody issues, you have to think carefully about how you’re going to resolve each matter. In order to do this, you must consider the needs of the child. It’s easy to become so focused on how things affect you and your ex that you forget that the children must be the sole focus of all custody decisions.
Many parents realize that working together to come up with the terms for the child custody matters enables them to have more control over what happens. In order to do this, there must be some basic rules between co-parents in regards to their interactions. Here are the two most basic:
Always be respectful
You and your ex should focus on respectful communication. Not only can this help you to resolve the issues faster, it also sets a good foundation for the parenting relationship in the future.
If communication in person tends to devolve into fighting, consider limiting the communication to text messages or emails. During the early stages of your divorce, you may even want to communicate via your attorneys.
Leave the past alone
You can’t let the past rule your decisions now. The things that happened to end the marriage likely don’t need to be brought up now. (The only exceptions, naturally, are problems that pertain to parenting abilities, like abuse, neglect or addiction.) Your ex may have been a terrible spouse, but they can still be a great parent.
Once you agree on terms of the parenting plan, you need to ensure they’re put in writing. Your attorney can help you to ensure that this is done in a way that accurately reflects your agreements with your co-parent, protects your rights and provides reasonable options for resolutions when there are conflicts.
