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The holiday season is quickly approaching. With the holidays comes additional stress for many parents and children either facing a divorce or subject to a parenting or visitation schedule created by the courts or by agreement.

Some parents easily agree on pick-up and drop-off schedules for their children for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and the winter and spring school recesses.  If you have just begun the divorce process it is not uncommon for such holiday schedules to have been ignored. By having a discussion with the other parent or alternatively negotiating through your attorney, a fair and equitable shared holiday visitation and summer vacation schedule can be created. If the parents cannot agree, the court can make a determination.

Unless you and your child(ren)’s other parent have an extremely amicable relationship having a holiday and vacation schedule in a divorce judgment or paternity / parenting judgment may help avoid later conflict. It can be beneficial to also include all major three-day weekends, full uninterrupted blocks of a week or two for travel in the summer, parent and child birthdays, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter and other religious holidays. The schedule can be in place in the event of a disagreement. Parents are free to temporarily agree to different times but are encouraged to do so in writing. If you and your co-parent are in complete agreement and wish to make permanent changes to the holiday visitation schedule the process is extremely straightforward with the assistance of competent counsel.

If you are considering divorce and are unsure how it may affect the holidays for your children, or you wish to create or modify a current holiday visitation or summer vacation schedule for your children, please call to schedule a consultation.