Co Parenting During Summer Break

Co Parenting During Summer Break

Summer activities begin to fill the calendar now that most schools have dismissed until the fall. Issues with schedules, especially after a divorce, crop up when meeting the demands of visitation and extracurricular activities: One parent may work more than the other; one parent might have the kids for two weeks, but need help with childcare. Co parenting is the ideal at all times, but summer can be a challenge since the kid(s) do not have school. Be mindful of these three issues:

Dividing transportation. Whether your ex spouse takes to the summer care program, watches them for you during work, or runs them to whatever ballet or tennis camps they are participating in, split up the responsibility. Some divorced couples cannot work together and the responsibility falls to standard visitation days. The downside of this is that sometimes, if you get the weekdays and your former spouse has weekends, one parent feels resentful of always running the child(ren) about and not having the same amount of quality time as the other parent. If possible, work out days where parents rotate responsibilities.

 

  • Dividing expenses. Along with the cost of lessons comes the expenses for clothes, shoes, and necessities like equipment. All of this gets pricey. Try to evenly divide the monthly tuition or fees between parents and rotate or decide who buys what and when. Maybe one parent can cover the cost of a camp and the other can handle the cost of childcare. Again, this just makes co-parenting easier and helps your kids see you working together for their good. It’s a win-win.
  • Sharing schedules for better communication. Communication might have been one of the issues you struggled with in your marriage, but if you have children together, working on your communication becomes paramount after the marriage as well. Getting your children to and fro from home to all of their activities can make life stressful. Thus, one can easily slip up and forget to tell the other parent about the beginning of a tournament or a birthday party. That’s why schedules and calendars for families were created. We’ve taken the time to look at these apps before, but one of the favorites was Our Family Wizard.This app includes a messaging system and message board, as well as an expense log and calendar. It has more, just check it out: https://www.ourfamilywizard.com/ofw.

 

  • Dividing transportation. Whether your ex spouse takes to the summer care program, watches them for you during work, or runs them to whatever ballet or tennis camps they are participating in, split up the responsibility. Some divorced couples cannot work together and the responsibility falls to standard visitation days. The downside of this is that sometimes, if you get the weekdays and your former spouse has weekends, one parent feels resentful of always running the child(ren) about and not having the same amount of quality time as the other parent. If possible, work out days where parents rotate responsibilities.

Hopefully, this information helps. Through the myriad of concerns, both practical and emotional, as you co-parent, just knowing your trajectory, your needs as a new kind of family, and what’s available to simplify your situation, can ease stress .Less stress equals more time to enjoy your family and your life together! Have a fun summer!