Parenting Plans

A basic parenting plan generally contains the following parts:

• • What is to happen on a week to week basis, including specifically when child exchanges are to occur, where they are to occur, and what adult is to be making the exchange (a parent, grandparent, as examples)
• • How holidays are defined and allocated (e.g., as that day (Halloween), or as a holiday weekend (4th of July weekend), or as holiday break period such as Christmas break and spring break.
• • A summer schedule

Schedules repeat themselves each year. They can become outdated as years go by. Children get older, their lives change and new parenting plans need to be developed. As a child grows up life will progress from being a small child possibly in a day-care facility during the week, to a school age child with sports and arts activities, to a teenager with a driver’s license. Obviously the parenting plan for one age group is inappropriate for another.

If the parents are geographically far apart, requiring a plane trip or long car ride for the exchange, transportation issues become more complex.

Many other subjects can be addressed in a parenting plan, usually arising out of concerns raised by one parent or the other.

There are several parenting plan “forms” out there. Quality varies. Many contain unnecessary fluff, general and frequently touchy-feely language that may have nothing to do with your concerns or those of the other parent.

One should contact his or her attorney if an existing parenting plan no longer is appropriate, to file for a modification. Whether the desired modification can be resolved by agreement or will be contested is always an important consideration.