Your children still deserve to go on vacations after your divorce. Thus, your parenting plan should have details regarding vacations.
Here are four tips to help you and your co-parent seamlessly include them in your plan:
Decide how to schedule vacations
You and your co-parent should agree on how you to schedule vacations. Will your kids go on vacation every summer break or every other month, for example? Assess your children’s school calendar to determine which vacation schedule will work for your family.
Determine how long each parent will be with the kids on vacation
Another factor to consider is how much time each parent can be away with the children on vacation every year. For instance, you might decide that you can each have up to 10 days.
Agree on a notification period
Don’t forget to include a notification period in your parenting plan. When should you notify the other parent of an upcoming vacation? For example, you may decide on 30 days to notify the other parent of the date and location.
You should also agree on how long the parent receiving the information has to respond if they have any concerns about the given schedule. For example, the other parent may have 5 days to respond when you provide your vacation schedule.
Other ground rules
It can be beneficial for you and your co-parent to have ground rules concerning vacations. You can establish travel restrictions (such as whether or not a vacation can be outside the state or county), share itineraries, agree on activities that the children can/can’t participate in while on vacation and so forth.
Including vacations in a parenting plan can be more manageable with good communication. Learn more about this to avoid conflicts with your co-parent, helping to ensure that your children keep enjoying life as they did before the divorce.
