Was shared custody tricky during the holidays?

Christmas has passed and the holiday season is reaching its conclusion. This was your first holiday season after obtaining a divorce from your former spouse, and there were challenges with the custody arrangement.

Upon reflection, you may now be thinking that some modifications might be necessary so that next year can go much more smoothly. Not only will this help to reduce your stress, but it will allow your children to further enjoy themselves.

Outlined below are a few practical tips for implementing this:

Learn from the mistakes made this year

You cannot change what has already happened, but you can use it as a learning curve. Make sure you have noted down all of the annoyances that occurred this year so that you can come up with a strategy for removing them next year. This is going to require some communication and compromise from you and your former spouse, and the easy way to get through it is to operate as a co-parenting team.

Be prepared to address the issues early next year

Many of the frustrations of this year came from last-minute changes through a lack of preparation. During this period, both you and your child really need some stability. Start working on your shared parenting plan as early as possible so that you can anticipate issues rather than have to address them on the spot.

Ideally, you and your co-parent should be able to come up with a workable parenting plan without court intervention. However, if it is in the best interests of the child, the court can intervene. Having legal guidance behind you when considering custody modifications will be very beneficial.