You don’t want your divorce to drag on forever, especially if you have children to tend to. Instead, you want to work things out with your former spouse as quickly and fairly as possible, all with the idea of moving forward with your life.
There are many ways to feel better about the future, including the creation of a parenting agreement. With one of these in place, you’ll find it much easier to understand your role as a parent and what you can do to ensure that your children always come first.
These are the types of things that a parenting agreement can touch on:
- Where the child will live
- Which parent has legal custody of the children (or whether it will be shared)
- Visitation schedule for the non-custodial parent
- An outline of where the children will spend birthdays, holidays, summer vacations and other important events
- How the children will communicate with other family members, such as grandparents
- A system for communicating with your former spouse
- Details of how to deal with any changes or disputes that could arise in the future
Although these are some of the more important details to include in a parenting agreement, you don’t have to stop here. Generally speaking, you can customize the agreement to cover anything that will make life easier on you and your children.
Once you and the other parent reach an agreement you can both live with, it is sent to the court for final approval. As long as everything checks out with the court, you can sign on the dotted line and use the agreement to govern the raising of your children in the future.
Just as the court will always strive to do what’s in the best interest of your kids, you need to take the same approach. When you know your legal rights and take the time to think about what’s best for your children, it’s much easier to make key decisions as the divorce process moves forward.
