Parenting Plans: Prioritising Your Children’s Well-Being
At Life Mediation, we believe that your children’s well-being should be at the heart of every decision during and after separation. One of the most effective ways to ensure their stability and happiness is by creating a solid parenting plan. A well-thought-out parenting plan not only provides structure for your children’s lives but also helps to minimise the conflicts that can arise between parents during a separation.
Our experienced mediators specialise in assisting parents to develop fair and mutually agreeable parenting plans. These plans are tailored to meet the unique needs of your family, ensuring that both parents are actively involved in their children’s lives (if that is appropriate).
Even in situations where communication has broken down and ex-partners have been unable to resolve their differences, our mediators have successfully facilitated mediation sessions in which the parents came to agreements that work for everyone involved.
Fast and amicable resolutions reduce stress for everyone, particularly the children, who benefit most from a stable and predictable environment.
Key Components of a Parenting Plan
A successful parenting plan covers several critical areas, ensuring that both parents understand their roles and responsibilities.
Here are some ideas of what could be included in a comprehensive parenting plan:
1. Care and Living Arrangements:
Your parenting plan should clearly outline where the children will live and how time will be shared between parents. This includes weekday and weekend schedules, holiday arrangements, and any special occasions.
2. Decision-Making Responsibilities:
It’s essential to specify how decisions regarding the children’s education, health care, and extracurricular activities will be made. Whether decisions are made jointly or assigned to one parent, clarity in this area can prevent future disputes.
3. Communication Between Parents:
A good parenting plan will establish guidelines for how parents will communicate about the children. This might include regular check-ins, the use of a co parenting app such as CoOperate agreeing to use specific apps designed to facilitate co-parenting communication.
4. Special occasions:
Major holidays like Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter, and birthdays should be specifically outlined in your parenting plan. Decide in advance how these days will be divided or shared, ensuring that both parents can participate meaningfully in the children’s lives during these special times. This clarity helps avoid conflicts and ensures that the children enjoy consistent, stress-free celebrations.
5. Travel and holidays:
Your parenting plan should address how travel will be managed, particularly if one parent wishes to take the children on an extended trip or if there is a possibility that one parent might relocate. Setting clear rules for how these situations will be handled is important for maintaining stability in the children’s lives.
6. Conflict Resolution:
Even with the best parenting plan, disagreements can arise. Your plan should include a strategy for resolving conflicts, such as returning to mediation or involving a neutral third party. Having this in place can help prevent minor disagreements from escalating.
The Harmful Effects of Negative Parental Behaviour
Certain parental behaviours can be particularly damaging to children and should be avoided at all costs. These include:
- Using children as messengers to carry hostile or critical messages to the other parent.
- Asking children intrusive questions about the other parent’s personal life.
- Creating situations where children feel they need to hide information from one parent to protect the other.
- Making children feel guilty for showing affection towards the other parent.
- Speaking negatively about the other parent in front of the children.
These behaviours can lead to a range of negative outcomes for children, including behavioural problems, issues at school, trust issues, low self-esteem, difficulties in forming friendships, and long-term challenges in establishing healthy adult relationships. A well-structured parenting plan can help prevent these issues by setting clear boundaries and expectations for both parents which in turn reduces conflict between the parents.
The Importance of Early Intervention
Early intervention is key to reducing parental conflict and its damaging effects on children. By creating a parenting plan early in the separation process, you can establish a framework that promotes your children’s safety and helps them adjust to the new family dynamics in a healthy way.
The sooner a parenting plan is in place, the sooner children can begin to adapt and find stability in their new circumstances.
Life Mediation’s Approach to Parenting Plans
At Life Mediation, we are dedicated to helping you create a parenting plan that works for your unique situation. Our mediators bring a wealth of experience and a compassionate approach to each case, helping you focus on what truly matters: the well-being of your children. By working together, we can help you build a parenting plan that fosters a positive, stable future for your family, minimises conflict, and supports your children as they navigate the changes in their lives.
Creating a parenting plan is not just about dividing time; it’s about ensuring that your children continue to feel loved, supported, and secure as they grow. Let Life Mediation help you achieve a parenting plan that works for everyone involved.
What Our Clients Say
Discover how families who have worked with Lisanne have found a way to move forward, been provided the support they needed, and were able to find a solution that works for everyone involved.
Please note that the names of our clients have been changed to protect their privacy.
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Conflict in the workplace is a common occurrence. In fact, statistics tell us that managers spend approximately 20% of their time dealing with conflict. On a 40 hour work week, that is 8 hours – a full day per week!
