Creating A Child Custody Schedule

The amount of decisions to make after a divorce can be daunting. Suddenly you're faced with trying to decide everything from who gets to stay in the house to deciding when to meet in court. The endless barrage of decisions can be hard to navigate--and trying to decide on a child custody schedule during this time can very well seem impossible. There are many issues to deal with when creating a child visitation plan--and the issues go beyond just coming up with a child custody schedule! Scheduling out the time with your child can cause feelings of sadness, disappointment, and anger. Not to mention the frustration that can emerge as you develop plan after plan that your ex won't accept. There are ways of making this process easier to handle though, and as you incorporate them you'll find that you can get through all the decision making and get on with your life.

The first big thing to decide is who will be the custodial parent. Sometimes this is a clear cut decision. For example, if mom has always stayed home with the kids and dad goes to work, then mom will most likely be the custodial parent. In many states it seems that the default custodial parent is the mother--but that may not work in your situation. This decision is one that both parents should agree on, and it should be based on what makes the most sense and what is best for the children. The amount of hours worked each week, how much travel a job requires for either parent, and the amount of pay for a job should all be considered. It is also helpful to remember that you can create a unique schedule for you. Maybe you and your ex want to have almost equal time with your children. You can create that schedule. There have been many child custody software programs that have emerged recently that allow you to custom build your schedule and that allows both parents to maximize time with your child.

After you decide who the custodial parent will be, you can decide on the basic schedule you want your visitations to follow. Maybe you want your child to spend every other weekend and two weeknights with your ex. There are a myriad of plans to pick from--and if your lawyer doesn't show you a pre-set plan, feel free to make up your own. Again, it can be very useful to have a child custody software that allows you to play with different options so that you can develop a completely customized child custody schedule.

Once the basic schedule is set up, you will decide who gets to spend the major (and minor) holidays with the kids, who will spend summer vacation with the kids, and when it is okay to go on vacation with the kids. As you are making these decisions try to be unselfish and do what is best for your children. You will naturally want to spend as many holidays with them as possible--but remember that your child loves the other parent and wants to see them too. Make the holiday arrangement fair so that both parents can agree to it. Some of the child custody software will let you plan out holidays for several years so that you can be sure it rotates. They will also let you plan in vacation time and change a schedule during summer vacation.

You can feel confident and secure about setting up your child custody schedule. If you are willing to put in the time and you make all of the decisions the best you know how, then you can be assured that you will have a workable visitation schedule. This can bring you great peace of mind and allow you to move on to make the other decisions that come with divorce.