Child Custody Agreements: Steps to Create Your Custody Schedule
The child custody agreement is the document that both parents accept that outlines where the child will live and visit, when the child will spend time with each parent and any additional information about the child that the parents want to add. When both parents agree about their custody agreement, they can go to court and the court will accept what they’ve decided. If the parents can’t come to agreement, they present their cases before the court and the court makes the decisions about the custody agreement.
Parents are usually better off if they can reach an agreement before going to court. This is because if both parents agree on the terms of custody and visitation they will be more likely to live by those terms. And, both parents will be happy with the results.
In order for parents to agree, they need to come up with a good custody and visitation schedule. This is one of the most important things in the custody agreement. Here are some steps to create the schedule.
The first thing to decide on is the division of custody and the basic rotating schedule for custody. This is the basic outline of where the child will live. The child may spend most of the time with one parent and visit the other parent several times during the week. Or, the child may spend equal time with both parents.
Come up with the schedule for custody and then map it out on a calendar. For example, say you come up with the outline that the child spends the weekdays with one parent and the weekends with the other. Block out the time on a calendar so you can see what it actually looks like.
Once you have the basic schedule figured out, you want to go through and divide up the holidays and put in vacation time. Alternate the holidays between the parents. Be sure that both parents have equal numbers of big and smaller holidays.
Then decide on the vacation time you want to allot to each parent. For example, you can include a clause that says each parent can take the children on vacation for two seven day periods in the year. Or you can actually specify dates when the parents will have vacation time.
For the holiday and vacation schedule it is helpful to write out the holidays in a table and assign them to the parent–then go through and write them on the calendar. That way you have the information in two different formats. Also, if the dates of vacation are known they can be put in the calendar, or there can just be the clause.
The last step is to add in the special events. Special events are the times when the custody schedule may change because of other things going on. There can be one time events–like a birthday, or recurring events–like the football games during the season. Write out a list and put them in the calendar.
Doing all of this may seem tedious and time-consuming, but it is important to do. There are software programs available that help you create your custody and visitation schedule. This can make the job faster and easier–and it can be helpful because you can create multiple schedule ideas to present to the child’s other parent.
All of this work will pay off when you and your child’s other parent can come up with an agreement. If you work together to create and make changes to your custody schedule you can come up with something that everyone will be happy with. Then you don’t have to worry about what the court will adopt because you’ll already have it all figured out.
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