3 Tips to Maintain a Positive Scope on Co-Parenting

Mother and daughter spend a fall afternoon together outside.

Going through a divorce or separation is hugely taxing on one's emotions. It's hard to stay positive if you feel like the things going on around you are consistently not in your favor. If you're experiencing regular co-parenting conflict, your outlook on this situation might feel rather bleak. 

Negative outcomes are as powerful as our reaction to them. Even if your co-parenting situation isn't expressly negative, maintaining a positive scope on co-parenting overall can help you surpass conflict and pitfalls that perpetuate negativity in the first place. 

As a co-parent, do all you can to stay optimistic about your family's potential to move forward and succeed even after such a difficult transition. Use strategies that set your family—particularly your kids—up for success rather than letting anyone fall behind. Consider these three tips that can help you maintain a positive scope on co-parenting.

Acknowledge What You're Thankful For

Even though your family's situation may not have turned out the way you had initially envisioned, there are many things that you can still be thankful for. Healthy children, working a job you enjoy, or even just getting a good night's sleep are all things for which you can feel grateful.

Taking a moment to acknowledge both the big and small victories and positive aspects of your day can help you to open up the scope of positive in your co-parenting. Check out this post on writing gratitude lists, a useful tool to help you recognize things that make you feel grateful throughout your day. 

Eat, Exercise, and Sleep Well

Feeling crummy physically can lead any person to feel crummy emotionally. Maintaining a healthy physical lifestyle will help to eliminate the risk of your body getting in the way of your emotional well-being.

Eat nutritious meals as often as possible, and drink plenty of water. Push yourself to get some exercise, whether it's a walk during your lunch hour at work or a trip to the gym a few days each week. And while guaranteeing yourself a full night of sleep each night as a parent, optimize the time you do get to sleep.

While it might not seem like doing all of these things will have any effect on your co-parenting, a positive boost in your attitude can provide you with a positive boost in all areas of your life, including in your co-parenting.

Focus Your Communication on What is Important

The scope of your co-parenting communication may not be very broad, but what you do communicate about is very important. Clear, concise communication focused on your children makes up part of the foundation of positive co-parenting. Do all you can to keep this up, even if it means finding alternative ways of communicating apart from phone calls, emails, and text messages.

OurFamilyWizard is built with families in mind, helping co-parents keep communication focused on their children. From shared parenting time calendars and expense registers to highly-documented messaging, OurFamilyWizard helps make it easier for you to maintain a positive scope on co-parenting by removing many of the points of contention that could lead to co-parenting setbacks. 

Maintaining a positive scope on co-parenting will be made easier by following these three simple tips, yet there is much more you can do to attain a positive co-parenting relationship. The optimism that you feel towards your co-parenting can go even further, encouraging you to have a more positive outlook on many other aspects of your life.