How Custody Agreements May Affect Holiday Celebrations and Potential Travel Plans
Holidays and special occasions have long been a source of conflict and stress for families of divorced parents. What happens when both parents want their child to spend Thanksgiving or Christmas with them? Or what if each parent wants to throw their child a party on the exact day of their birthday?
To help co-parents deal with child visitation and time-sharing, especially during the holidays, preparations, agreements, and parenting plans are vital. Before making any holiday and travel arrangements, be sure to revisit your parenting plan to ensure you’re honoring it.
Why Mediation is Necessary for Parents Negotiating Holiday Celebrations
In a perfect world, divorcing parents would sit down and draft the terms of custody and time-sharing without friction. Settlement agreements, child custody orders, and parenting plans are necessary to enforce time-sharing and holiday scheduling.
To avoid ugly child custody battles, courts encourage parents to use programs like mediation that help them resolve custody and time-sharing disputes.
During mediation, you and your ex-spouse are accompanied by your attorneys, and you will meet a neutral third party to discuss issues pertaining to child custody, time-sharing, and holiday scheduling.
When designing a parenting plan, allow your child’s best interest to guide you. Think about the goals that you both share and what kind of childhood you want for your children.
Go over all the meaningful holidays for all the years that your children are minors. There are a number of ways you can share the holidays. However, one of the most common and easiest ways to split the holidays fairly over the years is by alternating years. For example, your child will spend Christmas with you this year and spend Christmas with your ex-spouse the following year. Alternatively, the holiday itself may be split; the child can spend Christmas morning with one parent but transfer to the other parent’s house in time for Christmas dinner. Some parents may simply decide that they will get the kids on the same holiday every year.
Every family is unique, and specific holidays may be best experienced with a certain parent. For example, the ex-spouse may agree that the dad should take the kids for Halloween because he lives in a neighborhood where trick or treating is safer or simply more fun. They may also agree that the children will enjoy the 4th of July with the mom more because she lives in a community with the best fireworks.
Modifying a Parenting Plan
Children grow up. Their needs and interests change. Their parents’ lives change too. Parents may need to move because of their jobs. The dad or mom may remarry and move to another neighborhood or state. The children may mature and take an interest in one parent’s religion and, therefore, wish to celebrate certain holidays and traditions with them.
Even if you and your ex-partner designed the perfect parenting plan when the kids were younger, it may at some point need to be modified as your child grows up. Parenting plans and time-sharing schedules can be modified by agreement or by proving a “substantial, material, and unanticipated change of circumstances.”
To learn more about modifying parenting plans and time-sharing agreements, contact Debora A. Diaz, Esquire at 727-846-1802.
If you have questions about divorce, child support, shared parental responsibility, time-sharing/parenting time, and parenting plans, contact Debora A. Diaz Esquire at 727-846-1802 to schedule a consultation or use the Scheduling Link: https://deboradiazlawscheduling.as.me/.
At this time, all consultations are by telephone or video conferencing in order to protect our staff and clients.
Attorney Diaz practices exclusively in divorce and family law in Florida. Debora A. Diaz is also a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator.
Written by Debora A. Diaz, Esquire