Managing Co-Parenting Conflict During Summer Vacation

Now that the snow has melted and the daylight hours are getting longer, children all over Ontario are counting the days under summer vacation, even though they still have a few weeks to wait. Parents do not view summer vacation with nearly the same joyful anticipation as children do. For parents, summer vacation is a constant source of stress. You struggle to find activities that will keep your children occupied, and when you find those activities, you struggle to pay for them. Amidst all of this, the extra free time seems to amplify your children’s most annoying qualities, they seem whinier, more rambunctious, and more hostile toward each other and toward you. It is bad enough if you and your spouse are on the same page that summer vacation is a self-limiting problem and you both just have to keep a cool head until the new school year starts, but it is exponentially worse if you and your spouse are divorced, and your ex seems to undermine everything you try to do to make the summer go smoothly. For help navigating summer plans as a divorced parent, contact a Mississauga family lawyer.

Let the Parenting Plan Do the Talking

Making summer plans is a lot of work, and the good news is that your ex who does everything at the last minute cannot interfere with your efforts for a well-organized summer. Enrolling children in summer camp is as much work as enrolling them in school, and the commute is just as stressful. Booking summer holiday travel is also no mean feat. When you were married, your ex used to spring surprise plans on you all the time; he would tell you in the last week of June that he had decided that your family was going on a road trip to Vancouver for Canada Day with his buddy.

Your parenting plan can shut those surprises down before they start. The parenting plan specifies which days the children will be with you and which days they will be with your ex. If your ex wants to play it by ear, he can only do it during his parenting time, and you are free to stick to your plans during your parenting time.

Paying for Children’s Summer Activities

Unfortunately, parenting plans only address timesharing; they do not say anything about the financial aspects of co-parenting. You and your ex-spouse might disagree about which summer camps your children should attend. Even if you agree in principle about the activities, you might disagree about whose responsibility it is to pay for the summer camp. Unfortunately, resolving these disagreements is not as simple as just referring to the parenting plan; you might have to get your lawyers involved if you cannot reach an agreement on your own.

Contact Zagazeta Garcia LLP About Your First Summer After Divorce

A family lawyer can help you draft a parenting plan that accounts for the doldrums of summer vacation.  Contact Zagazeta Garcia LLP in Mississauga, Ontario to discuss your case.

Source:

divorcemag.com/articles/how-to-co-parent-with-an-ever-changing-summer-schedule