One of the most challenging parts of divorcing as a parent is negotiating with your spouse about how you will both handle custody during extended vacations and holidays. For example, if both parents work during the summer, will you both send your child to summer school, summer camp, or daycare? If one parent has the season off as well, would that parent be able to take full custody during that time?
Typically, during a divorce, parents will be forced to establish a parenting plan before seeing a judge about child custody. This plan creates regular visitation or custody schedules. Likewise, it will cover important periods that might come up in discussion after the divorce is over.
If you split summer break into two halves, both parents can plan vacations with their kids around the half of the season they have custody. For example, parent A will have custody during the first half of the summer, so parent A will schedule all flights and time off during that time; parent B will do the same, but during the second half of the summer.
Parenting plans can also cover holidays such as Mother’s Day, Christmas, New Year’s, or Memorial Day. Any holiday your family finds important, you should make sure to schedule a time for it in the parenting plan.
If you or the other parent needs to make a change for some reason, the change should be discussed between the two parents. If one parent doesn’t mind the change, or you can compromise by making a change agreeable to the other parent, you don’t need to involve the court. However, if one parent doesn’t agree to the change, you can ask the court for a modification.
Modifications to child custody are usually made if a substantial change has happened in the lives of one of the people concerned in the divorce. For example, if a parent changes jobs and has much more free time to spend with his or her child, a judge may find it is preferable for the child to spend more time with that parent rather than be sent to daycare until the other parent can pick the kid up.
If you need help making a modification to your child custody order, don’t hesitate to give our skilled Bronx family law attorneys a call. Attorneys Michael King believes everyone deserves to have access to the right attorneys. Talk to us about your case in a free consultation.
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