Joint Custody Holiday Schedule

If you and your co-parent have opted for joint custody, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Joint custody is a very big commitment but it allows you to spend significant and quality time with your children. It is typically seen as being in the best interest of the child because significant time is spent with both co-parents. This is why family courts and professionals often encourage joint custody. One very important issue often comes up during the scheduling process, the issue of a joint custody holiday schedule.

Holidays are an important time for children and family

If you and your co-parent are planning on a joint custody agreement, you will be encouraged to do so outside of the courtroom. A family court judge will typically be in favor of the custody agreement being settled by the parents. If you and your co-parent cannot come to an agreement, then it will be left to the judge to make a decision based on the best interest of the child. Many co-parents may opt for a joint custody arrangement but then find themselves unable to agree on any details when it comes to the joint custody schedule or joint custody holiday schedule. Be sure that you and your co-parent are able to be civil during this time and understand that some sacrifices may be necessary for the health and wellbeing of your children. Holidays are an extremely important time for children and family. If conflicts arise during holiday times because of your joint custody holiday schedule it may be time to rethink your joint custody or joint custody holiday schedule.

A joint custody holiday schedule should not be taken lightly

The creation of your joint custody schedule is by far the most important part of your custody agreement. It is beneficial to take this process one step at a time. For now we will be focusing on the joint custody holiday schedule. A joint custody holiday schedule needs to be a separate schedule from your normal joint custody schedule. This is because important holidays only occur every so often and not all holidays are on the same day each year. This can make it very difficult to make a consistent and effective schedule. One of the most effective ways of creating a joint custody holiday schedule is to sit down with your co-parent in a civilized manner and discuss the issues on your own or with a mediator present. During this conversation with your co-parent, a good strategy is to create a list of all of the holidays that you both celebrate throughout the calendar year. The next step is to rank all of these holidays based on your own opinions of importance. For instance, some people may view Christmas as being more important than Halloween. After the entire list has been ranked by importance you and your co-parent can begin to divide the list of holidays between the two of you. To keep your joint custody holiday schedule fair, you and your co-parent will also divide the holidays based on importance. For instance you should both have equal amounts of holidays with high importance, equal amount of holidays with some importance, and so on.

Joint custody holiday schedule management

Joint custody 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 joint custody holiday schedule, please visit the Child Custody and Divorced Parenting page for more information.