Parenting plans allow exes in California to work out details related to decision-making and time-sharing of their children. It is important that exes work together to develop a parenting plan that is in the best interests of their children. When developing these types of agreements, parents need to make sure to work out different details of their children’s upbringing, such as their schooling, diets and medical insurance, so that they do not have questions or arguments later over these important issues.
Within parenting plans, having important details, such as a visitation schedule for holidays, weekends and overnights, can help former couples in the long term. They need to think about their children’s needs at different ages when developing plans. They may need to change the plan as their children get older to incorporate their extracurricular activities, schoolwork and overall schedules, but they should try to work together to develop a routine and schedule from the time of their divorce or breakup, especially when their children are younger and stability is extremely important.
Parents need to both sign pertinent custody and visitation agreement forms, get them signed by a judge and file them in court for them to be legal. Before they go before a judge, parents should make sure to take their children’s need for overall security, love, good medical care and regular sleep schedules into account when developing parenting plans.
Sometimes parenting plans can be challenging for parents to agree on when they are going through a custody fight during a divorce. A judge often has to be involved in the process of deciding visitation and child support when parents cannot agree. In a situation where parents are having a hard time communicating but want to work together on a parenting plan, an experienced family law attorney may want able to work with them to come up with an agreement benefiting their children.