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Divorce, custody and visitation changes can
affect everyone in a family. Children have special needs during these
disruptive times and co-parenting education can teach parents how to best
reassure and nurture their children in order to create as smooth a
transition as possible.
It can also help adults help development of their children. They need to
continue parenting together effectively, even when they no longer reside
in the same household.
Parenting plans help parents remove the frictions, so that they can be
loving and responsible parents to their children even though they may feel
very angry at each other.
Setting up a joint parenting plan is not just for those divorced parents
who get along well, or who want to share equally in all responsibilities.
In fact, it might be even more helpful when there is conflict between
parents. Clearly spelling out each parent's responsibilities minimizes the
need to argue about them time and again.
To resolve conflicts, you need to set up structures that will allow your
ex and you to continue to both be parents to your children, even though
you will no longer be living together - you may even have very little
contact with each other. There is a whole range of shared parenting
arrangements - from co-parenting (where parents are frequently in contact,
to share information or make plans)... to parallel parenting (where
parents are each on a separate track).
You create these structures by negotiating a parenting plan with your ex.
This makes it clear which responsibilities are shared, how parenting time
is shared, who does what, and what degree of involvement you expect to
have with each other.
You are more likely to succeed in putting together a parenting plan if you
have help from trained professionals – a Family Life Educator and Coach.
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