Creating an Effective Co-Parenting Calendar

How do I make an effective co-parenting calendar?

You can create a co-parenting calendar on your own, with the other parent or with a lawyer or legal professional. If you don't want to pay the high cost of a lawyer, you can make a calendar with Custody X Change.

What is a co-parenting calendar?

A co-parenting calendar is an essential tool that divorced parents use to determine where their children will be staying on any given day of the year.

You can customize this to fit your situation with Custody X Change.

Co-parenting occurs when two parents raise their children together although they are no longer in a romantic relationship with each other. Even though your marriage ended, your responsibilities to your children have not.

A co-parenting calendar (also called a visitation schedule or parenting time calendar) is an important part of your divorce proceedings.

Parents usually propose or agree to a schedule as part of their parenting plan, a document that outlines how you and the other parent will raise your children.

Try this with Custody X Change.

Why does my family need a co-parenting calendar?

Your family needs a co-parenting calendar so you and the other parent can work together to provide the most stable environment possible for your children. Without one, there is too much room for miscommunication and conflict.

Here are some of the benefits of a detailed co-parenting calendar:

• A set schedule can help everyone adapt to life after your divorce.
• You and the other parent know exactly what is happening on any given day.
• You can make regular and consistent plans for your children, such as music lessons.
• Your children will feel more secure and confident knowing their schedule in advance.
• You and the other parent can plan a consistent parenting routine at both homes.
• You may reduce your legal costs because there are fewer disagreements on visitations.
• It reduces the potential for arguments, miscommunication and conflict over visitations.

The Custody X Change software can help you create a digital co-parenting calendar to keep track of your schedule every day of the week.

What information do I need before making a co-parenting calendar?

When you and the other parent sit down together to create a co-parenting calendar, it helps to have dates, times and other scheduling details in front of you.

Because you and the other parent are likely dealing with a year or more of scheduling, you should not rely on your memory or guesswork when creating a parenting time schedule.

Bring with you:

• Start and end times for each child's school, including any shortened days
• Start and end times for each child's extracurricular activities
• Dates of school closures
• Dates of state or national holidays
• Start and end of summer vacation
• Any visits planned with other caretakers, such as with grandparents in the summer
• Any other holidays or event, such as vacations

With exact times and dates on hand, your co-parenting calendar will be more accurate. This can help reduce conflict because the calendar will need less adjusting.

To help you create a workable calendar, use the award-winning software Custody X Change. It provides templates you can quickly customize for your family's needs.

What if the other parent doesn't want to make a co-parenting calendar?

If the other parent refuses to work with you on preparing a co-parenting calendar, create one on your own. You can submit a sample co-parenting calendar as part of your paperwork to the family court.

Since the court prefers to see a co-parenting calendar both parents contribute to, your judge may order you and the other parent to attend a mediation session.

However, it's also possible that the judge may agree with your individual proposal and make it official. As long as you show that the co-parenting calendar you've made is in the children's best interests, it could be approved as is. The judge may ask for minor modifications as well.

Don't skip out on giving the court a sample co-parenting schedule just because the other parent won't cooperate. As the expert on what is best for your children, you should let the court know your opinion on visitation .

What does the judge want to see in my co-parenting calendar?

The judge at your custody hearing wants to see a co-parenting calendar that puts the children's needs ahead of parental convenience or desires. The goal of family court is to protect the children from any harmful effects of divorce.

Ideally, the judge wants to see two parents cooperating on how they will continue to provide physical and emotional stability after the divorce. Parents who can negotiate a fair and stable parenting plan, including a co-parenting schedule, are showing the court that they are putting their children's best interests first.

The co-parenting calendar should show the judge that you and the other parent are doing everything you can to preserve the children's current living situation and lifestyle, within reason. The calendar should also reflect reasonable visitation time with the noncustodial parent.

Here are some things to avoid when creating a co-parenting calendar:

• Avoid visits that last more than a few days for small children
• Avoid too many transitions between households in a week
• Avoid unreasonable transition times, such as late at night
• Avoid blocking the children's access to the noncustodial parent, unless they're found unfit by the court
• Avoid excessive travel if the two homes are far apart

How can I ensure my calendar meets my children's needs?

Keeping a parenting journal helps you see if your calendar is meeting your children's needs. It gives you a place to you keep track of notable events, from a missed visit to your child acting out.

When you keep a parenting journal, you can recognize patterns in your children's behaviors and note any parts of the schedule that just don't work. The other parent is more likely to acknowledge that the calendar needs adjusting when you can point to evidence you noted as it happened.

If you need to make official changes to the co-parenting calendar, a printout of your parenting journal can also help convince the judge that revisions are necessary for your children's best interests.

You can customize this to fit your situation with Custody X Change.

It's handy to have a digital journal to keep track of all the positive and negative things that happen as your family adjusts to a new way of life.

The easiest way to make a co-parenting calendar

Creating a calendar on your own can feel overwhelming. You'll want it to address holidays and school breaks, divide parenting time appropriately, and work for years to come.

The Custody X Change app takes the guesswork out of the equation by helping you build a calendar piece by piece.

As a result, you get a visual calendar and a written schedule. They meet your family's needs, as well as the court's standards.

For quick, reliable and affordable help making a co-parenting calendar, turn to Custody X Change.