Dealing with complex and contentious child custody issues can be enormously stressful. And truthfully, you’re likely to continue to confront challenges even after your divorce or nonmarital custody issue is settled in court. This is because you’re probably going to have to find a way to successfully co-parent if you want to avoid conflict and support your child’s best interests as fully as possible. Easier said than done, right?
Tips for effective co-parenting
Even if it seems impossible, there may be things that you can do to strengthen your co-parenting relationship and decrease the amount of conflict involved in the process. Here are some tips that we hope will be helpful to you:
- Find an effective communication strategy that works for everyone. This may mean exploring various communication methods, such as text messaging and emailing, as well as implementing the use of technology, such as shared calendars.
- Keep your disagreements with the other parent away from your child. Otherwise, you’re probably going to create more stress in your child, which can lead to even greater conflict with the other parent.
- Try to keep a consistent and predictable schedule so that the other parent and your child are not taken by surprise.
- When communicating with the other parent, always focus on the child and avoid emotional offloading. It’s also helpful in many instances to keep a business-like tone to avoid confrontation.
- Have conversations with the other parent about how to keep rules and discipline consistent between the two homes.
- Engage the other parent in the decision-making process.
Effective co-parenting can be beneficial not just to you but also to your child, leaving them feeling more loved, supported, and secure. That’s why we hope that you’re able to successfully implement these tips to strengthen your co-parenting relationship. If you can’t, though, and need to consider some sort of custody modification, experienced legal teams like ours are here to help.
