Child Custody Holiday Schedule

Creating a child custody schedule is not an easy task. When going through a divorce, you should be putting a lot of thought into the custody of your child and what would be in your child’s best interest. Co-parents are typically encouraged by the family law courts to determine an appropriate custody schedule outside of court that both co-parents can agree on. One very important thing that must be covered when discussing possible custody schedules is a separate child custody holiday schedule.

Both a child custody holiday schedule and normal schedule

Holidays are an important time for family. We aren’t just talking about the winter holidays like Christmas, Chanukah, or New Years; we are talking about every major holiday throughout the year. This could also include birthdays. Co-parents planning for shared custody must also determine a child custody holiday schedule while also creating their normal custody schedule. It is most often in the best interest of the child if both co-parents can come to an agreement on a child custody holiday schedule and normal schedule outside of the courtroom. You, as co-parents, will most likely know what’s best for your child over a courtroom judge. If you cannot come to an agreement with your co-parent, a judge will determine a child custody schedule based on what they view as being in the best interest of the child.

Important issues when creating your child custody holiday schedule

When creating your child custody schedule one of the most difficult parts is dealing with reoccurring holidays. Some holidays are more difficult to schedule than others. Many holidays occur on the same day every year, such as Christmas always being on December 25^th, while other holidays may be different every year, such as Mother’s Day or Thanksgiving. These inconsistent holidays can make it very difficult to make a proper custody schedule that will consider all of these holidays, which is why it is often important to think of a child custody holiday schedule as a separate schedule.

Creating a successful child custody holiday schedule

In order to make an effective child custody holiday schedule, many co-parents will agree that a predetermined child custody holiday schedule will supersede their normal child custody schedule. What this means is that co-parents will create their holiday schedule in any way that they agree on, and this schedule will always hold true for these holidays, no matter what their normal child custody schedule may be.

Creating a successful child custody holiday schedule requires a lot of effort from both co-parents. It is important to sit down with your co-parent to discuss these issues, even if you do not have good feelings towards one another. During this time, one strategy that seems to have a high success rate is compiling one list of holidays that you or your co-parent may celebrate annually. When you are completely done compiling this list of holidays, you must sort them by importance by discussing with your co-parent. For instance, some people may feel that Christmas is a more important holiday than Halloween, and so on. Now it’s time to make your child custody holiday schedule. This list of holidays will be evenly split between you and your co-parent. Both of you are to have the same number of holidays with equal importance so that this division is fair. This has been a widely successful strategy for creating a child custody holiday schedule.

Child custody holiday schedule management

Holiday schedules are often more difficult to maintain than your normal custody schedule. This schedule does not easily become habit because these days only occur once a year. The OurFamilyWizard website® is making this task easier with their online calendar tool. This tool allows you to have a reference to your schedule years into the future. The OurFamilyWizard website® is dedicated to providing co-parents with the tools and resources they need to easily manage their custody agreements. For more information on how the OurFamilyWizard website® can help with your child custody holiday schedule, please visit the Child Custody and Divorced Parenting page for more information.