Three Good Reasons To Try Co-Parenting
If you're contemplating divorce, the prospect of sharing parenting responsibilities with your spouse may not sound all that attractive. After all, most divorcing couples have difficulty communicating about small issues, let alone those that affect the health and well-being of their children.
However, there many good reasons for at least attempting to keep both you and your spouse in your children's lives on a regular basic, not the least of which is helping your children to feel secure:
What is co-parenting?
Co-parenting is an umbrella term that refers to any arrangement where two, unmarried parents share custody for their under-age children. Such arrangements can take many forms. They can involve the children staying with one parent during the week and the other on the weekends.
They can involve children staying with one parent during the school year and the other on holidays and summer break. There is no one, right way to co-parent. The right way is the one that works best for you and, especially, your children.
Benefits of co-parenting after a divorce
1. Co-parenting helps children to feel secure
One of the most difficult things about divorce from a child's point of view is the uncertainty. Children tend to fear that they aren't going to see the non-custodial parent very often.
When you co-parent, the children know exactly when and where they'll see their parents next. Not having to worry about this uncertainty will allow them to concentrate on kid-like things, like school work and extracurricular activities.
2. Co-parenting helps set a good example for your kids
When you co-parent, you have to make compromises and work together with your ex-spouse, even when he or she isn't at the top of your list of favorite people. Your kids can learn from both of you that diplomacy and working out your differences in a civil matter is important and is a skill worth developing.
3. Co-parenting gives kids access to your extended families
No child can ever have too many people who care about him or her. When you co-parent, your children will still be surrounded by both sets of grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends of the family.
While co-parenting may not be the right choice for every divorcing couple with children, these types of arrangements allow children to have both parents be an active part of their lives, something that leads to greater security for them. If you haven't considered co-parenting, it might make sense to give thought to it.
To learn more, contact a company like Waters & Associates, Attorneys At Law with any questions you have.
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