How To Navigate Summer Break Custody Schedules
Summer vacation can feel like a coparent’s nightmare — it changes every year and takes ample planning to coordinate the schedule. Not only that, but effective coparenting communication is essential when your child is on break. If any detail or date changes, the coparent needs to know ahead of time so they can avoid overscheduling your child.
If you don’t have everything organized ahead of summer vacation, now’s the time to start planning. Between a child’s social activities, family trips, and doctor’s appointments, there are a lot of potential problems to arise for parents with joint custody.
Key Areas To Consider When Planning Summer Vacation
If your child will be spending long periods of time between coparents during the summer, planning can be more challenging than sending them with a bag of clothes. Sleep routines, eating habits, and day to day activities change between houses so to ensure your child has a fun, enriching summer break, coparents have to work together.
To make the transition smoother in the months ahead, start coordinating the following:
Doctor Appointments
Summer is a great time to schedule any necessary doctor visits, dentistry cleanings, and eye exams. It’s such a great idea that many Arkansas families do the same, which means that booking can be limited.
If you can’t find an appointment during your custody hours, can you rely on the coparent to take your child to an appointment? Or perhaps they have missed scheduled appointments in the past, and you no longer trust their ability to follow through.
You may need to adjust your summer custody schedule to include health and wellness appointments or pursue additional parenting time to ensure your child’s needs are met.
Summer Camp
Every year, many children across the country participate in summer camps. It’s a great experience for young minds as they get to explore activities they are interested in with a group of peers.
While the experience is great for children, it’s tough on the parents — especially sleepaway camp. Both coparents’ summer custody will be heavily impacted by their child’s participation. In order for your child to enjoy an enriching summer camp, coparent communication is key.
Coordinate with the other coparent to plan for summer camp and include them in the decision making process, if possible. Despite wanting your child to have an excellent camp opportunity, each coparent will also desire individual summer parenting time.
Family Trips
Hoping for a family getaway this summer to an exciting location? Run the idea and potential dates past your coparent, especially if the trip is out-of-state. What might be perfect timing for you could be poor timing for your child.
Ideally, if you are going on vacation, you should bring all of your children, including those from past relationships. Think about it this way, your child may not understand that you couldn’t work out an agreement with your ex partner, and will feel left out. Those parenting decisions can impact your child’s feelings for life, therefore it’s important to try your best to work with your coparent.
When Summer Plans Turn Sour, Consult The Professionals
If you’ve been working on your child’s summer custody schedule and anticipate potential problems with the current coparenting agreement, you need to chat with a legal professional. Some issues may be resolved in mediation, where others may need to be taken to the judge.
Given that the summer season is quickly approaching, give Hickey & Hull Law Offices a call at (479) 434-2414 or schedule a consultation with our online agent. Let us handle the legal matters so you can focus on the things that matter, like spending quality time with the kids at the pool.