Your parenting plan for young children covers many aspects about your children’s lives. Most parents focus on the day-to-day issues such as child care, overnights and school attendance. There’s no way to anticipate everything and sometimes parents new to co-parenting fail to address some of the high-impact situations that may arise. Life offers many unforeseen situations that you’ll need to adapt to as co-parents, so create a parenting plan that is open to significant change. Also, plan on regularly reviewing and updating your parenting plan as any of these scenarios change.
Some of the life-changing events that might take place during the decades after your divorce include:
• Remarriage of one or both parents
• Relocation of one parent
• Disability of one parent
• Disability of a child
• Death of one parent
• Death of both parents
You and the other parent must address what would take place in each of these scenarios concerning the care and welfare of your children. For example, plan out what might happen if one parent relocates far away from his or her current location. Visitation would be significantly affected, especially as outlined in your current parenting plan for toddlers or young children who are not able to handle weeks apart from their primary caregiver. Both parents must agree to a workable long-distance visitation that puts the interests of the children first.
In another example, consider how the death of one parent would affect the rights and responsibilities of the deceased parent’s family. Custody and support for the surviving parent would likely be altered as a result of the other parent’s death. Consequently, you may decide that a life insurance policy for both of you is important in providing for your children in the event of a tragedy. You may also want to establish a third party caregiver in the event neither of you are able to care for your children.
Create your parenting plan so that it is workable on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis, but keep it flexible and open to encompass large events. Ultimately, the decisions you make on these big issues must be made in the best interest of your children. Even though your martial relationship has ended, your parenting responsibilities continue. Planning for big changes is the responsible and loving thing to do for your children.