About The Parenting Plan

In An Overview Of Visitation And Child Custody In Arizona, we covered the different types of custody and parenting time. If you are getting divorced and you’d like to have a stable environment for your child, then it’s vital that you develop a parenting plan that will keep everyone satisfied with the new changes in your family’s life. While not everyone will be happy, you can make sure that everyone is able to spend time with each parent and each child. If you and your spouse are able to come to an agreement on how you’d like to split the time between yourselves, then you probably won’t have to spend any time in the Arizona legal system. On the other hand, if you and your spouse cannot come to an agreement, then a family law lawyer can help you get the desired results when you contact The Law Office Of Ronald Kossack.

What Is A Parenting Plan?

A parenting plan is a type of written formal document that details the agreements and the commitments between you and the father or the mother of your children. Both you and your ex need to come to an agreement that outlines how exactly you’d like to raise your children. This is not exactly a legal document, but in Arizona, the court would like you to file this plan as part of the custody agreement. This formal plan for parenting will help you and your ex reach an agreement on how you feel the roles and responsibilities should be implemented.

Why You Need A Parenting Plan

Parenting plans are beneficial because they help you and your partner know the different scenarios that may come up and how you’d like to handle them. The parenting plan is a great way to address those scenarios first and foremost as well as detail how you feel about it and what your ex will agree to do. A parenting plan is a written legal custody statement that will eliminate any future conflicts, inconsistencies, and the variables that might come up between you and your ex about the children. The parenting plan is an open discussion that promotes cooperation between you and your ex. Many courts put an emphasis on reaching an agreement about the parenting situation and the time spent with the children because the more likely the parents are able to sustain a stable environment the more likely the best interests of the child are reached and maintained. In addition, for those couples who are finding it difficult to come to a resolution, in the State of Arizona, private mediation services are offered through court-sponsored assistance.

How To Create A Parenting Plan

Creating the parenting plan can take as long as you and your ex allow it to. This means that you and your partner are much more liable to co-parent together and have a much more fluid experience instead of arguing while creating the plan. In the State of Arizona, it’s required that a written parent plan has to be reviewed regularly in the case of joint legal custody to offer a method to resolve conflicts about parenting time as well as custody. The parenting plan is a statement that a joint custody agreement isn’t defined as an equal parenting time.

When you create the parenting plan, there are a few different methods that can be used. There are a few different types of plans that can be customized for your specific situations. Whether you’re putting a plan together to co-parent or the judge ordered you to, it’s vital that you consider the best interests of your children and what they would be happiest with. For instance, if you have a small child, it might be easiest to keep them in one house instead of moving them around. In addition, some parents might not want to disrupt the schedules of their children, so it would be best to keep them as close to their routine as possible.

What To Include In Your Parenting Plan?

As you create the parenting plan, you’ll want to include some basic must-haves such as:

  • Regular visitation schedule
  • Parenting time over the holidays
  • Parenting time for birthdays
  • Visitation transportation agreements and backup plans
  • A basic residential schedule
  • Neutral drop off
  • Anticipated changes
  • Car seat requirements
  • Any changes that you’d like to make to the schedule in the future
  • Rules for introducing parents to dating prospects
  • Plans with extended family members
  • How relocation requests will be considered
  • Whether the other parent should be considered as a babysitter

As a parent who is going through a divorce, it can be difficult to create a parenting plan because you just want to spend as much time with your kids as possible. If you’re having difficulties coming to a decision, then contact our family law lawyer to come to an agreement.

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