Physical Office Has Moved
Our New Office Location Is: 2607 Lee Street, Greenville, Texas 75401
Call Now To Schedule Your Initial Consultation
(903) 964-1122
Virtual Appointments Available As Needed
Our New Office Location Is: 2607 Lee Street, Greenville, Texas 75401
Call Now To Schedule Your Initial Consultation
Virtual Appointments Available As Needed
Virtual Appointments Available As Needed
In this article, you will discover:
Flexibility is key because most holiday parenting times revolve around school calendars, which we know change on an annual basis. If schools decide to let out for Christmas holidays early one year, they may go back significantly later in January than the prior year.
If parenting time schedules revolve around the school’s holiday schedule, you may feel you’re unfairly deprived of time, or the other party is unfairly given a windfall of time. It can be essential to be flexible and take into consideration the changes in school schedules.
This situation is particularly true for the Thanksgiving holiday. There may be additional days off and early release days during the week of Thanksgiving that may provide an opportunity for you to have some additional parenting time because there have been some changes in school schedules that allow it. It’s just important to be flexible as plans change and as parenting time schedules change.
It’s important to keep holiday plans in whatever parenting communication app you are using. If you’re using OurFamilyWizard or AppClose, it’s essential to keep the holiday plans in writing in one of those messaging apps so the plans can be preserved and spelled out very clearly in black and white.
That way, everybody’s got the plan in writing. Ultimately, whatever decision is reached, there is no miscommunication about how it’s going to go.
Have frequent communication and communicate early on when there is a schedule change. Don’t wait until the last minute. Often, the majority of conflicts about schedule changes or requests to deviate from a court-ordered parenting schedule are because you waited until the last minute.
Be willing to bring any challenges to the other party’s attention very early on, but also be flexible in how you propose to resolve those challenges or those conflicts. Come with a couple of options so that if you don’t get option number one, you have a backup option that’s as equally or perhaps just a little bit less desirable to you.
You want multiple avenues to resolve the conflict instead of just presenting a problem and saying, this is the only way to solve it.
If there’s a dispute, refer to the court order and try to resolve any ambiguity in the language or dispute over what time should be allocated to which parent early on. If there’s no ongoing litigation, it is left to you and the other party to decide how they’re going to resolve those conflicts.
If there is litigation and you have a parenting facilitator, a parenting coordinator or an attorney representing you in litigation, you should take those disputes back to one of those parties in an effort to help work towards a resolution.
It can be very costly, and often, it’s not feasible to get into court over holiday visitation changes and disputes because the courts are very backed up and have limited time during the holiday season. If it’s ultimately necessary, it’s an option to file something with the court and have a hearing set to get a judge’s ruling on the matter.
Attorney Christina Wade Perrone is an experienced lawyer based in Greenville, TX, who helps clients like you with family law issues such as divorce, child support and child custody. With her experience handling family law matters and complex litigation, she can help you navigate the ongoing complexities of co-parenting and parenting time.
Still have questions? Ready to get started? Contact Perrone Law Firm today to schedule an initial consultation.
Have the schedule in place early, and use a calendar to help your children know and expect what’s coming up next. Talk about it frequently so that children know if they’re going to spend Christmas Eve at this parent’s house this year, but next year, that means they’ll spend it with you.
If there’s an alternation between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, communicate that with your children. There’s no benefit to springing it on your children at the last minute. Involve them throughout the process and planning of the year’s vacations, holiday celebrations and family traditions over the holiday season.
Make sure plans are flexible and still involve your children, but also arrange them for times that fit your court-ordered parenting time. That helps the children have some of the consistency that they’re used to over the holidays, but recognize that it may be flexible throughout the calendar year as to the specific days and times it happens.
As long as children are given some warning about how that change will be different this year versus last year, they can generally do a good job of adjusting to that. If a child has a significant amount of stress about transitions over holiday time, it may be necessary to involve a professional.
A counselor or a therapist can help your child cope with some of that stress and process those transitions if it starts to feel out of your wheelhouse. There’s no downside to asking for that help. You should be encouraged to do so if you feel counseling could help your child.
Parenting communication apps, such as OurFamilyWizard and AppClose, offer comprehensive calendars that allow you to include events and designate parenting time. They also allow you to include information, adding entries to the calendar about:
Information that needs to be communicated between yourself and the other parent can be done through the calendaring app to keep everything together in one place where both parents can access the same version of the calendar and input information as they learn it from your child or their child’s school.
Calendar apps are a great way to organize what’s happening with those busy holiday schedules. It’s also important to share holiday information from school in the app that might be communicated to just one parent’s house. By doing that, you will both see the organization and facilitate ongoing communication about changes that need to be made. By communicating early on, there’s less conflict and stress from last-minute changes that need to happen.
For more information on 6 Tips For Co-Parenting During The Holiday Season, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (903) 964-1122 today.
Attorney Christina Wade Perrone is an experienced lawyer based in Greenville, TX, who helps clients like you with family law issues such as divorce, child support and child custody. With her experience handling family law matters and complex litigation, she can help you navigate the ongoing complexities of co-parenting and parenting time.
Still have questions? Ready to get started? Contact Perrone Law Firm today to schedule an initial consultation.