Co-parenting is part of parenting time and custody orders of the court in Michigan. It is imposed on parents in a divorce and may lack desired flexibility acceptable to both parents. The best approach is to have a mutual understanding of how to make co-parenting calendar work for parents without sole custody.
Click here to watch the video on How Does A Co-Parenting Calendar Work For Parents Without Sole Custody In Michigan?
The role of parents is essential for the growth and development of the child. You will hear that from all the experts. The court knows that very well. There is a reason for making parents and children work through a co-parenting calendar even for parents without sole custody in Michigan. Like always, it is in the best interest of the child taking front and center on the spouses’ co-parenting calendar.
The Truth About Custody, Visitation, and Parenting Time
It is usual for one parent to be granted primary physical custody and the other to be granted appropriate parenting time with the children following a divorce or custody ruling. If a parent is granted physical custody, the child is entitled to live with them. But regardless of living arrangements, the non-custodial parent frequently retains legal custody of the kids, allowing them to be involved in significant life decisions. The other parent cannot be excluded just because one parent is the primary caregiver for the most of the time.
When two parents rear their children jointly despite no longer being romantically involved with one another, this is known as co-parenting. Your obligations to your children have not changed even though your marriage has dissolved.
Co-parenting is not only a smart idea, it’s also crucial for many families because many separated or divorced parents continue to share the parenting responsibilities and obligations after their split. In reality, studies show regular time spent with each parent, including overnight visits, has a positive effect on a child’s ties with each parent separately starting at a young age.
The kind of co-parenting we’ve just described isn’t the only way parents who have children in different houses can cooperate to raise them. Depending on the circumstances, alternate arrangements becoming also a trend today like parallel parenting can be a more practical choice.
In Michigan, a child’s custodial parent is the one with whom they spend the bulk of their overnights each year. This definition is comparable to the one used by the Internal Revenue Service to determine a person’s tax-filing status as a dependent.
Physical custody and legal custody are the two types of custody available in Michigan. However, the phrase “physical custody” is no longer commonly used, most likely due to political correctness concerns. Nobody actually has “physical custody” of a child, after all. Physical custody and custodial parent are now referred to as one and the same in Michigan law.
When there is a custodial parent the child has looked up to for daily needs, Michigan courts do not support changing custody. In fact, if a court names one parent as the custodial parent, it will not change an existing custody arrangement unless there is strong evidence doing so is in the child’s best interests.
In general, regardless of the gap in income, the custodial parent will receive child support payments made by the non-custodial parent.
This Is The Power of Love, Technology, And The Calendar
An essential tool divorced parents use to decide where their children will be staying on any given day of the year is a co-parenting calendar.
An essential component of your divorce procedures is a co-parenting calendar, which is sometimes known as a visitation schedule or a parenting time calendar. Each state has a specific type of custody arrangement divorced parents must agree upon.
As part of a bigger parenting plan, which is a document outlining how you and the other parent will raise your children, both parents have to agree to the timetable. This timetable is an integral part of a court’s order for parenting time.
In many situations, parents collaborate to choose the visiting schedule working best for all parties. If the court awards one parent physical custody, that parent should make an effort to work around the other parent’s job and social commitments so the other parent and children can continue to forge a strong bond.
If both parents agree on a parenting time schedule, the court will follow it as long as it’s in the children’s best interests.
If you and the other parent are unable to come to an arrangement, the judge will do it for you. The non-custodial parent typically has access to the kids on alternating weekends, alternate holidays, and some of the kids’ school breaks.
You should be aware the court’s schedule specifies the bare minimum of parenting time for the noncustodial parent. In other words, the court order doesn’t prevent you from allowing more weekend or vacation visitation if you and the other parent agree to do so.
Parenting calendar software handling schedule synchronization, messaging, to-do lists, recipes, photos, financial management, and connecting with professionals. Some of these apps can interface with printers to print calendars from PDF files.
These come in freeware and subscription-based versions.
If love truly motivates you to do everything in your children’s best interests, you will abide by the court mandated schedule and take effort to learn also technologies that will help you make it happen.
How To Make Co-Parenting Work For People
The first step to co-parenting work is to learn what is considered in managing parenting time. Families without any safety concerns should use these recommendations.
The timetable of a youngster should include:
- [a] Contact with each parent at least once every couple of days, while also giving the parents “breaks”.
- [b] Predictability and consistency.
- [c] The child’s developmental needs are taken into account. With infants on a breastfeeding schedule, for instance, shorter, more frequent blocks of parental time may be most effective. The exchange of breast milk can be arranged by the parents.
- [d] Nighttime parenting time with both parents when both parents previously took care of the child’s daily needs, either jointly or separately.
- [e] Consider a “graduated schedule,” with minimal parenting time initially and increasing the frequency and duration of parenting time when parenting milestones are completed, when a parent has not regularly cared for the child or is not comfortable caring for the child.
- [f] Parenting time should be scheduled as regularly as possible when parents live far away. For parenting time, parents might have to travel.
- [g] The chance for both parents to attend events with the child, like birthdays, religious celebrations, and doctor’s appointments.
- [h] An extended parenting time plan that could involve longer durations, including many consecutive overnights, as the child ages.
The State Court Administrative Office of Michigan published its own Michigan Parenting Time Guideline. It was published February 2021 and was last updated: March 2022. You can ask for a copy or look for it online.
The guideline provides more than a dozen templates on parenting schedules based on the different development levels of the child. It can give a substantial guide for parents who may not have any clue where to start. These templates are recommended on the assumption no safety issues are at play in the circumstances of the child.
Other circumstances may prevent parents from cooperating or even interacting, particularly if safety is a concern. Your attorney should be able to assess your situation and provide expert advice on how to go forward while safeguarding you and your child if you are unable to maintain a secure relationship with your co-parent or believe your child’s safety is at risk while in their sole care.
You might be thinking if there’s actually a standard parenting time, to answer that, go read our article, “What Is Standard Parenting Time In Michigan?” in our Legal Blog here.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel today for more advice on Family Law!
Goldman & Associates Law Firm is here to with information about Child Custody and Divorce in the State of Michigan.