Always Staying Prepared
With the school year in full swing, it’s highly likely that your child’s school schedule will cause some type of change in your daily routine, whether that change is from sports practice, band practice, or other various afterschool activities. In addition, the current state of the pandemic could wind up pushing students back into the virtual classroom. With these changes can come frustration, especially as a co-parent with child custody.
Fortunately, change does not have to strike fear into your heart. Here are ways that you can adjust to various changes that might occur throughout the school year as they relate to child custody.
Stay Calm
Perhaps the easiest tip to provide yet the hardest to follow in moments with heightened emotion, it’s imperative that you stay calm in the midst of difficult changes. You may have had everything perfectly planned out for your child, and now all of it upended with a simple schedule change. These changes, while certainly annoying at times, are important for your child, so keeping a cool head will ultimately help you prevail in these circumstances.
Manage Your Own Emotions
By working through their own emotions, parents can maintain the composure necessary to help kids remain calm in such wobbly times.
Focus on the Language You’re Using
Focusing on the language we use with kids is important. Our words have power and kids will be looking to us to find the language to express how they’re experiencing this new set of rules and regulations.
Communicate Early
If something suddenly changes in your child’s schedule, it’s important to communicate this change as soon as you possibly can to the other parent. They need to be aware of what is happening in their child’s life so they can work with you to create a new plan for issues such as picking up and dropping off the child and any changes to the overnight schedule.
For example, if your child decides to participate in an afterschool basketball program that holds practices several times per week, you and the co-parent might have to adjust the times that you pick the child up and drop them off; such a change might also mean that one parent’s designated midweek overnight visit might have to change to a different day depending on the schedule change.
Consult Your Custody Agreement
In light of changes to your child’s schedule, it’s important to remain on top of your custody arrangement to ensure that you and your co-parent are following what has been ordered. If your child’s schedule changes begin to cause serious complications to your custody agreement, you should consult an attorney to determine whether you should return to court to seek a modification or if you and your co-parent can create a new agreement and have it approved by the court.
Do You Have Child Custody Questions?
Child custody issues can cause co-parents great deals of frustration at times, but it’s important that you not hold onto those frustrations and get your questions answered. At Pacific Cascade Legal, our team understands how you are feeling about your custody issue, which is why we are dedicated to getting you the help you and your child need.
To ask questions of our custody attorneys or to schedule a consultation, call us at (888) 981-9511 or visit us online.