When you divorce someone with whom you share minor-age children, you will need to determine how you will share parental responsibilities and parenting time. It is important to remember that this likely won’t look the same throughout the year or maybe even week to week.
The most challenging of these periods is often the summer vacation. While you are free to keep the same parenting time schedule as usual, the fact that the kids will need more looking after often makes this difficult.
How will the children spend their summer?
Think about the capacity each of you has to care for them during their summer vacation. There is a good chance you will both be working after you divorce. Much will depend on the age of the children and on your jobs and work hours. If your children are in their late teens, they’ll need less looking after than if they are kindergarten age.
If you work from home, it can make things easier. However, you need to be realistic about whether you can still get work done with the children there and whether they’ll get enough attention and stimulation if you have to work all day.
Outsourcing some of the childcare
Investigate what activities are available in your area, like day camps. Alternatively, you might want to call on family members to help out. Many working parents send their kids to stay with their grandparents for part of the summer, which can work well if the grandparents live somewhere fun, like close to a beach or even on a farm.
Take them away yourselves
You probably don’t want to go on a vacation with your ex and the kids soon after your divorce, although some co-parents do. However, if you can take the kids on a vacation for a week, and your co-parent can take them away for a week, that is two weeks covered right there, with some quality bonding time and fun thrown in.
While you may have your differences with your co-parent, if you both put your children’s best interests first and are willing to cooperate and be flexible with each other, it can make summer simpler. Discussing things now, as you divorce, gives you a good chance to put some guidelines down in writing.