What are the Legal Process for Child Custody and Parenting Plans?
Divorcing or breaking up with your partner is a big change. Things often get harder when you have kids. If you and your partner are no longer happy together, getting a divorce gives you both a chance to be happier on your own. Parenting laws help you and your partner be happier apart, which helps you keep healthy, maintain positive relationships with your kids and helps you co-parent in a positive, cooperative way.
Getting a divorce means you have to deal with a lot of legal issues, such as how to handle the kids and how to split up your property. So, getting a lawyer is important. At every step, you will need help from a lawyer who knows what they are doing.
When a couple decides to split up, they write down how they will take care of their child custody. This is called a “Parenting Plan.” Both parents sign the agreement and put the date on it. You should always think about what is best for the child when making a Parenting Plan.
But there are many laws about how to raise children. In Family Law, the Family Law Act of 1975 (“FLA”) tells parents that going to court is the last resort if they can’t agree on who should have legal custody. It also encourages parents to work together to decide who should have legal custody.
Opting a Legal Parenting Plan
When you get a divorce or split up, you stop being a spouse or partner, but you never stop being a parent. Your job is still to raise the child in a stable and healthy way, and it should be at the top of your list of priorities. For that, you need a child custody lawyer who can help both sides come to a good decision. For the sake of your child, you should always make a Parenting Plan with a lawyer, even if you don’t want to talk to or stay in touch with your ex-spouse or partner.
How to Make a Good Parenting Plan
When there is a clear Parenting Plan, parenting arrangements like co-parenting or shared parenting work better. As you write a Parenting Plan, please keep the following in mind:
Clear Lines between Who Does What
While you are making a Parenting Plan, talk to your ex-spouse about your rights and responsibilities when it comes to taking care of the child. Plan out how much time the child will spend with each parent and when and for how long each parent will take care of the child. The Plan should also explicitly state who is responsible for what when it comes to finances, education, discipline, rules for the house, and making decisions.
Set aside Time to Spend with the Child
You want to spend more time with your child or family on special days like their birthday or Christmas. So, there isn’t any confusion or anger, the Parenting Plan should make it clear that both parents will get to spend enough time with the child on special days.
Who to Call in a Crisis and How to Get inTouch
If you and your ex-spouse take care of the child together, you will need to let your ex-spouse know about any emergencies. In these kinds of situations, the Parenting Plan should say how to reach each parent and how to get in touch with them.
Provision for Regular Contact
A plan for shared parenting should make sure the child sees both parents regularly. So, someone might have custody of the child for a certain amount of time, but they should also be able to see the child often during that time.
Respect and the Ability to Adapt
Parents who agree to share care for their child should also agree to respect each other’s worries, wishes, and goals for the child. Also, they should both be willing to change to meet the needs of the other.
Acceptability
People should always be willing to accept that the way two different people raise their kids can’t be the same. The Parenting Plan should let each parent do their own thing as a parent, as long as it is reasonable and the other parent is okay with it but it should be in the best interest of the child.
Getting ahead of Things
A Parenting Plan should always say that the people involved should make plans for the child ahead of time or let the other person know if they won’t be able to take care of the child for a certain amount of time so that they can change their schedules.
How to Act
When making a Parenting Plan, both parents should agree to treat each other and the child with respect and not say anything bad about the other parent in front of the child.
Talks about the Different Points of View
There may be disagreements in a co-parenting arrangement, but the Parenting Plan should include ways to work them out. Also, you should never talk about various disagreements in front of a child.
No Fights about Who Is Loyal
How well a Parenting Plan works in the long run depends on how well the parents talk to each other and how much they care about their children’s growth and needs. A child should never be in the middle of a fight between their parents about who is more loyal.
Conclusion
Divorce or separation can be one of the hardest things in a person’s life. Adding children to the mix can make it even harder. There are a lot of things to think about and take into account when a relationship ends. You need to do more than just to get over your own sadness. For example, you need to figure out who gets what from your pool of assets. When you get a divorce, you have to deal with a lot of legal issues, like how to handle the kids and how to split up your property. At each step, you will need help from a lawyer who knows what they are doing.
