Saturday, June 6, 2009

Parenting Plans: Steps for Making One

By Dianna Nelsun

A parenting plan is another term for custody agreement. This is the document that divorced parents create together to outline the conditions of custody and visitation. This is a vital document in any custody case.

If you are involved in a custody case, you need to make your parenting plan. You want to be thorough and include everything that needs to be there. To help you, here are three things to put in your parenting plan.

1. Your schedule of custody and visitation. You need to outline the type of custody you and the child's other parent have, and the basic schedule of custody. You should also create a holiday schedule and incorporate that into your custody calendar. You can also include vacation time for the parents to take the children and other special events.

2. Child support documents and information. You will need to provide certain financial information for child support. This differs from state to state, so find out what your state required. It is also extremely helpful to figure out the exact time-share or overnight percentage. This number is used to calculate child support, but it is difficult to figure out. Most states just guess at the number. You want to make sure that your child support amount is correct, so figure this out exactly.

3. Provisions about parenting. There are always little rules that the parents want each other to follow. Think about the rules you want and include the important ones in your plan. This could be something like being informed when the other parent takes the child out of the country. Or not allowing the other parent to smoke around the child.

If you work hard when making your parenting plan, you'll be happy with the results. The courts are impressed with well thought out plans that contain enough information. Once your parenting plan is finished you'll be able to focus on your parenting.

About the Author:

No comments: