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Arranging child parental plans, strategies and ideas for both parents sometimes can be challenging. CountryWide Family mediation will help you both resolve issues and find joint ideas to resolve disputes without going to court. Contact us Today!

Child Parenting Plan And How Mediation Helps

What is a child parental plan?

A child parental plan is a written plan that is worked out between parents after they separate. It may involve grandparents and other family members. Whereas mediation is a negotiation facilitated by a neutral third party. In fact, mediation doesn’t involve decision-making by the neutral third party you are the ones who make decisions.

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Why A Child Parenting Plan Is Essential

In marriage, divorce is a terrible and painful experience for everyone involved. Nobody wants to leave what they have. However, after divorce it is important that if the marriage involved children, the parents need to smooth things by creating a child parental plan. This is because children need support, love and good relationships with both parents plus good communication is essential.

Conflicts between parents hurt children. It is necessary that both parents have control of what is to come in the lives of the children. Therefore, the parental plan is important since it gives a detailed structure on how the children will be taken care of.

To avoid conflicts that may come up in the wake of a divorce since the children will not be staying with both parents, a written parenting plan that gives the stipulations of the arrangements needed be put in place to take care of the children is mandatory.

In case situations change in the case of one parent or both, it is important that parents know what their new roles are. Besides, the parents of the children can use the child parental plan to know their responsibilities and to avoid swaying out of the stipulations of the child parental plan before modifications are done to the initial parenting plan.

A child parental plan involves issues to do with communication by parents with their children, who the children spend time with is crucial too and for how long and it has to be agreed upon by both parents. Besides other issues such as money, religion, education, health care and emotional well-being also have to be stipulated in the plan.

What does the child parental plan not involve?

As much as the child parental plan may seem comprehensive enough in most of the situations pertaining children, it doesn’t involve everything. The way the divorced couple divide up their belongings such as money, their home and assets is not part of the child parental plan.

Ensuring safety of the child

In situations of violence, or physical, emotional, sexual and emotional abuse to a parent, or to a child, drug abuse and neglect of the child, consideration of whether to proceed with the plan has to be done based on this. If a parent is violent, there has to be consideration as to whether it will affect the safety of the child. That may include limiting periods of visiting the child or if it has to be done with supervision.

Who is a mediator and what are his or her roles?

A Countrywide mediator is a professional who helps the parents to draw up a structure on how to take care of their children amid separation. He or she is independent and hence cannot take sides or attempt to make the couple get back together. The mediator helps you and the other parent to discuss and agree on things that you two cannot agree on and does not tell the parents what to do as that will be bias. If parents get along well they may come up with a parental plan on their own but in any case interests of the child come first. See our mediation fees