Planning your summer vacation is supposed to be fun in California, but it can be stressful if you’re divorced and you’re trying to plan it around your children. If so, use these tips to make sure that everything works out well.
First, you need to stick to your schedule, and you need to have it in place well in advance. A lot of issues spring up when one parent just calls up the other and wants to go on an impromptu trip, which can interfere with plans that parent had.
Similarly, you need to give a lot of advance notice to the other parent. You two may want to sit down as soon as possible and plan out the whole summer. Though it’s hard to think this far in advance, that means your schedules can mesh well.
If your child custody agreement is limited in any way, make sure that your plans aren’t going to break it. For example, some agreements are bound by geography, saying you can’t take the children out of the state. You need to know all of these little details because even accidentally breaking the agreement is still a violation.
Finally, when you’re on a trip with your children, don’t cut them off from communication with your ex. Let them talk on the phone, on Facetime or through other means. You value this time with your children, but allowing your ex to still be part of it in this small way makes them happier and helps keep things civil for smooth planning in the future.
Before planning any trip, take these ideas into account and carefully go over your legal agreement.
Source: FindLaw, “Top 5 Tips for Child Custody and Summer Vacation,” Brett Snider, accessed June 11, 2015
