While the kids look forward to the summer break, divorced parents may dread having to adjust and re-adjust their co-parenting arrangements. Schedules are a lot easier to navigate when school is on because there's structure, but summer brings some challenges, especially for co-parents who may have issues communicating.
What if one parent wants to go on a holiday with the children or the kids have to be away for a few weeks for summer camp? How can co-parents maintain a positive and peaceful existence amid the distruptions?
Below are some positive co-parenting techniques that will make the summer break easier to handle:
1. Embrace flexibility.
According to Divorce Mag, even the best-laid summer plans can change and affect everyone's schedule, so co-parents need to be flexible about the unexpected. While planning holidays or summer activities ahead and then informing the other parent of these plans is the ideal way to go about it, the most important thing to keep in mind is that co-parents have to support their child's relationship with their exes.
Thus, if travel plans change and one co-parent is contacting the other for their signature on travel documents, or if this may mean that the other parent has to flip their holiday schedule as well, be open to a compromise and communicate without any trace of irritability. Any unexpected change has a solution, so it's better to talk it over than argue about it.
2. Share the cost of the summer expenses.
Ballet lessons, karate classes, summer or sports camp, and other activities will cost fees, and the responsibility of paying for these fees will be on both parents. For some families, a summer daycare program might be necessary because the primary parent will still have work even if the child is on a summer break.
According to the Nelson Law Group, co-parents have to be ready for summer-related expenses, and every ex-spouse has the right to ask for help in this regard, especially if they are struggling with covering the cost.
If the issue of summer expenses was not addressed in the provisions of the child support discussions with the other parent, it might be time to sit down, work it out, and document it. This way, the co-parents can avoid another awkward conversation next summer.
3. Ask the children for their input.
Some kids may not want to travel to an exotic place this summer. If their parents take the time to ask them what they want to do for their break, then it will avoid unnecessary expenses or the stress of planning a trip.
Always consider what the child wants first, especially if they can articulate this, so there will be no burden and finger-pointing from the moms or dads.
4. Never compete with the co-parent.
It might be tempting to outdo the other parent when it comes to giving the kids a wonderful summer vacation, but if it's going to ruin summer or change their kids' attitude, then the mom or dad should better rein it in. The person who will lose out in this competition is none other than the child.
If parents compete for the child's affection, they will lose sight of their disciplinary responsibility to the child, who might start to show behavioral issues, according to Men's Divorce. So, if the child comes home after this exceptional two-week summer vacation with their dad, the other parent should be glad they were able to create such memories.
