Child Custody & Visitation Blog

Have you decided to try a joint custody agreement for your custody situation? You are not alone. Many divorced and separated parents try to put their children first be adopting a joint agreement to raise the children. This is often the right solution to some difficult questions.

Basically, a joint custody agreement means that the mother and father will share the responsibilities of raising the children. This means that they both participate in making the decisions for the children, and they both spend time with them. Because the custody and visitation schedule is such an important part of the agreement, parents who want a joint agreement need to make a schedule that goes along with this.

A joint custody schedule doesn’t mean that each parent gets exactly half of the time with the children. Instead, it means that the mother and father both have significant time with the child so that both parents can develop a strong relationship with the child. A schedule should be made that gives both the mother and father ample time to be with the child.

One of the biggest factors that affects visitation schedules for joint custody is the child’s school schedule. Children who are not yet in school are more flexible and visitation is usually set up around the parents’ schedules. Once children attend school, though, the school day becomes a priority.

Because of this, it may not be possible for each parent to have the child for half of the week. Instead, parents should realistically look at the options and plan visits the work for the child. As with any schedule, it is vital that the joint custody and visitation schedule be made with the child’s best interest in mind.

Parents who make a schedule where the mother and father are both involved will be more likely to be satisfied with the schedule. This means that there will not be a court battle, or an endless saga of trying to get things changed. Instead, the parents can focus on parenting the child.

Example joint custody schedules include: alternating weeks, alternating days or every two days, the child living with one parent but having significant visitation with the other parent throughout the week, alternating custody every two weeks, setting up one schedule during the school year and an alternate schedule during the summer break to even out the time, etc.

In a joint custody agreement, the parents have about equal time with the children. There are a myriad of ways to set up a joint custody schedule. You can set up an Ackerman plan, a 2/2/5/5 schedule, a 3/3/4/4 schedule, switch custody every other week or every two weeks, etc. One way to make setting up this schedule easier is to use family law software.

There are a few different types of family law software that have been developed. For setting up a custody agreement, parents can get custody family law software. The software make is easier to create joint custody schedules in a few ways.

1. It makes it easy to experiment with ideas. In order to make the best joint schedule for the parents and the children, the parents will need to play around with some different options. Custody software makes it very easy to do this. Custody X Change lets you make as many plans as you want. You can experiment with different repeating cycles and visitation until you find one that works for you.

2. The software can give you an accurate time-share percentage for each parent. While you create a calendar in Custody X Change it constantly gives you the time-share percentage that each parent has with the children. This is especially helpful in joint custody arrangements because the parents can know for sure they aree sharing time equally.

3. You can easily make changes. Usually the parents who have joint custody schedules are a little more flexible with time because they are trying to work together. If the parents need to make a change in the schedule, having it on the computer makes it easy. You don’t need to remake your entire schedule or count all of the days. You simply open the calendar, click a few times, and everything is updated.