Signs it is time to change your time-sharing Plan
Coming up with a workable time-sharing plan for your children can be a painstaking and drawn out process. After weeks and even months of going back and forth over the details, you finally have a parenting-plan which sets out when you will see your children. However, as time passes, children get older, circumstances change, and it may be necessary to adapt to your time-sharing plan to fit everyone’s circumstances. Here are some signs it may be time to change your time-sharing plan.
Your Children’s Needs
Parenting plans are essentially frozen in time once they go into effect. Ideally, parents and their attorneys will have included some terms which anticipate the future. However, needing changes to parenting-time, or the time when parents have their children with them, can be hard to predict. For instance, it may be that the plan made sense when your children were small and needed to be with one parent more than the other but now could be changed to allow for equal time with both parents. Your child may also have new activities and interest such as sports or social events which makes staying with one parent on specific days more logical. If your children’s needs have significantly shifted, changing parenting-time to conform to these changes may make sense.
Logistics of Time-Sharing
Sometimes making changes to time-sharing is merely a matter of doing what works best for everyone based on their locations. If a parent has moved out of the area, changing the plan from weekly to monthly time-sharing may be reasonable. If the child is primarily residing with a parent who now was to frequently travel, allowing the other parent to share time during these business trips could be a good alternative rather than having other caregivers keep the child.
Problems with the Parent and Child
An unfortunate possibility is that a parent could be engaging in endangering conduct which requires a change to time-sharing. For example, if the parent is being physically abusive, abusing alcohol or drugs, or is otherwise unsafe, changes to time-sharing may be urgently needed. If you suspect your child is unsafe with the other parent, you need to contact an attorney right away to find out what steps you can take to protect them.
At the Draper Law Firm have experienced family law attorneys who understand the issues and laws regarding time-sharing and can provide you with the advice you need. If you are considering modifying your parenting plan, please contact us to schedule a free consultation. We invite you to learn more about our firm here.
