Remember These Details in Your Timesharing Schedule

When a divorcing couple is working out timesharing schedules with children, the major issues get the most attention–things like child support, custody, and visitation schedules. Former couples will work out a comprehensive timesharing schedule, but they often forget the details, which can cause problems later on.

Here are some common details that are often overlooked in a timesharing schedule or parenting plan, which you should remember when coming to an agreement on timesharing and visitation with children

• Early pickup from school: When a child is sick and needs to be picked up early from school, which parent will do this? If mom dropped the child off, but the schedule says this is dad’s day to pick the child up when school ends, who is supposed to get the child when they have to be picked up from school early for some reason?
• Lost or forgotten items: It often happens that a child leaves something important at the other parent’s house–a laptop or homework. What parent will be responsible for dropping off forgotten items to the other?
• Transportation of items: Many agreements say that parents have to allow the children to take their personal items from dad to mom, as they choose, regardless of which parent actually bought the item for the child. You can do that, or alter it, but it is important to have some mention of this often contentious issue.
• Vacations – Vacations create a host of legal issues, if they are not properly addressed. For example, when does vacation actually start and end? The day that school lets out or the day after or some other date? How much notice does one parent have to give the other of proposed vacation dates for out of town trips, and which parent gets priority, in the event there are conflicting dates?
• Non holiday “special days”: Legal and traditional holidays are usually accounted for in most time sharing schedules. But what about things like birthdays, bar/bat mitzvahs, sweet sixteens, or other events that are special, but not actually calendar holidays?
• Extra curriculars: Some extra curricular activities cost money. Who will pay for these? Just as important, does paying for the extra curricular mean the child has to do it? In other words, what happens if dad pays for religious school–does mom always have to take the child to religious school, when the child is with mom?
• First Refusal: If a parent will need the child to be with a babysitter, does the parent first have to give the other parent the right to babysit (or be with) the child before getting an outside sitter? This is called the right of first refusal.

For many of these there is no right or wrong answer. The only wrong thing is to ignore these issues completely, and end up fighting later on. It may seem like you are squabbling over trivial details, but what you are really doing is memorializing your rights in advance, to avoid unnecessary fighting later on.

Contact our New Jersey family law attorneys at The Law Office of Agnes Rybar LLC for help today with any custody or child timesharing issue.