Can a Parenting Plan Be Too Detailed?

All couples who get a divorce while their children are minors must draft a parenting plan, but no two parenting plans are exactly alike. Most families can finalize their parenting plans during mediation, which means that you do not even have to try to persuade the judge to grant you the parenting time that you request. Customizing your parenting plan can be the first step in a fruitful co-parenting relationship that will enable you and your ex to get along better with each other and with your children than you did when you were married. The worst thing you can say in a parenting plan is “whatever.” A parenting plan is not the place to decide to cross that bridge when you get to it. The result is that, when you get to the bridge, you and your ex will stand in front of the bridge and argue until the court intervenes. It is better to have an excessively detailed parenting plan that says that, in odd-numbered years, Dad will pick the children up from the parking lot of the McDonald’s on Sunrise Boulevard at 10:00 a.m. on Black Friday, and in even-numbered years, Mom will pick them up at 4:00 p.m. on Black Friday from the Publix on Stirling Road. As long as both parents follow the parenting plan, too much detail is never enough. If your ex-spouse does not follow your parenting plan as written, contact a Boca Raton child custody lawyer.

The Flaky Dad, the Frustrated Parenting Coordinator, and the Escheresque Parenting Plan

You be the judge of whether this Palm Beach County couple’s parenting plan was excessively nitpicky:

• The couple’s son and daughter, both of whom attended school, would alternate one week with Mom followed by one week with Dad
• The children participated in extracurricular sports, and the parents were responsible for driving the children to sports in their respective parenting time
• On the children’s birthdays, they would spend most of the day with the parent whose week it was, except for two hours they would spend with the other parent
• When a parent traveled outside Florida with the children during his or her parenting time, the traveling parent must provide the non-traveling parent with a detailed itinerary

Shortly after the divorce, the father stopped abiding by the parenting plan. He withdrew the children from extracurricular sports. He traveled to Idaho with the children on the son’s birthday, so the mother could not exercise her two hours of birthday parenting time. The mother petitioned the court to appoint a parenting coordinator. This option is available to divorced parents who have already finalized their parenting plan. After 16 meetings, the parenting coordinator quit, since the father repeatedly promised to abide by the parenting plan and then repeatedly broke his promises.

Contact Schwartz | White About Co-Parenting With a Micromanager

A South Florida family law attorney can help you if your parenting plan is infeasible because it reflects your ex-spouse’s micromanaging tendencies.  Contact Schwartz | White in Boca Raton, Florida about your case.

Source:

scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15605735573193467631&q=divorce+birthday&hl=en&as_sdt=4,10&as_ylo=2015&as_yhi=2025