Right of First Refusal in Your Parenting Plan

A common custody provision that parents include in their parenting plan and custody agreement is the right of first refusal (a.k.a. the right of first option).

By including the right of first refusal, you guarantee that when the other parent needs someone to watch the children, they must ask you first. Let's explore this a little bit more.

What it means

Parents who include right of first refusal basically want the opportunity to watch the children when the other parent has them. This means that instead of calling a babysitter when a parent wants to go out, the parent calls their co-parent first and gives them the right to first refuse the children.

Let's say that the mother of two little boys decides to go on a three-day vacation during the week when she has custody. Instead of calling her parents to watch the children, she must first call the boys' father and give him the option to have the three days with the children. If he refuses, then she can find someone else to watch them.

When to contact the other parent

You can set a minimum time for when parents have the right of first refusal.

Some parents have the provision that anytime a parent needs someone to watch the children (even for just for an hour) they have to first ask the other parent. This can be impractical, so many parents set the minimum time between five and eight hours.

If a parent is going to be away from the child for more than the specified number of hours, they have to call the other parent to watch the children. You can set the "triggering" time limit in your parenting plan to any amount.

Putting the right of first refusal in a parenting plan

Adding the right of first refusal to your parenting plan is easy with the Custody X Change app.

Just use our guide to selecting parenting plan provisions. When you see boxes for provisions categories, select the "child care" category, then the "right of first option of child care" provision.

Then complete your plan by adding other provisions. The app provides more than 140 options.

The easiest and most reliable way to make a parenting plan is with Custody X Change.