Holidays and Parenting Time
While the holiday season can be stressful for many, for parents who are divorced and sharing joint custody of their children, navigating time sharing around the holidays can be particularly challenging. Advance planning, coordination, and cooperation are key to ensuring a happy holiday season for all involved.
Texas courts are guided by child’s best interests
As in many states, the Texas courts are guided by what it deems is in the best interests of your child when making determinations concerning child custody or visitation. The court prefers that both parents are actively involved in the life of the child and encourages parents to work together. It is best for divorcing couples to develop a custody and visitation plan prior to a custody hearing. This parenting plan should address who the child will live with during the week and on the weekends, as well as address holidays and school vacations.
Tips to sharing holiday time
As you approach the holiday season, it is important to keep the best interests of your child/children at the forefront of any modifications to the possession schedule. Create the happiest holiday memories possible in your situation. The following are some tips to sharing holiday time:
- Schedule two holiday celebrations instead of one. Arrange a time for each parent to celebrate the holiday with your child. By celebrating a holiday on one day with one parent and another day with the other parent, nobody is left out of the celebrating and your child can enjoy special time with both parents.
- Share the holiday. Arrange to have your child spend part of the holiday with each parent. Advance planning and coordination is necessary with this arrangement so both parents can enjoy quality time with the child and the child doesn’t spend most of the holiday in transit.
- Select holidays. In this arrangement, each parent celebrates designated holidays with your child each year. This scenario works well if the parents have different views on which holidays are most important.
- Take turns. By alternating years for celebrating holidays with your child, neither parent will miss out on spending a holiday with your child for more than one year in a row.
Any aspect of these arrangements can be combined into sharing holiday time with your child. Again, the goal is to enable your child to enjoy celebrating holidays, family traditions, and quality time with both parents.
Our Fort Worth family law attorneys can help develop a visitation schedule that suits your needs
Child custody and visitation can be one of the more difficult arrangements to manage after divorce. Developing a schedule for celebrating holidays can be particularly challenging. Let us help. The family law attorneys at The Law Offices of Kyle Whitaker in Fort Worth understand the emotional toll and logistical obstacles involved in child custody. Guided by compassion, knowledge, experience, and skill, our dedicated team assists couples through every phase of the divorce process, helping to make the transition to life post-divorce as smooth as possible. Schedule a free consultation with a member of our team: contact our office at 817-332-7703 or online.