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Balancing extracurricular activities in shared custody situations

On Behalf of | Mar 13, 2020 | Firm News |

Experts overwhelmingly prefer that parents share physical custody because it allows children to have adequate time with each parent. This allows them to develop meaningful and beneficial parent-child relationships, which can lead to positive effects in their lives. However, shared custody is not always easy because it involves the children going back and forth between the parents’ houses. 

It can also cause problems when children have extracurricular activities. Managing complex schedules is tough when you are one family, but when you become two families in a divorce, it becomes even trickier. When kids have several extracurricular activities, it is up to the parents to make it work. 

Make a commitment 

The Minnesota Judicial Branch explains that both parents need to commit to getting children to and from all extracurricular activities. It will not be good for anyone if one parent constantly drops the ball, and the child misses out on the activity. Parents should do what they can to rearrange their schedules to suit the children’s schedules whenever possible. 

Work together 

When making decisions about extracurricular activities, parents must work together. They should make sure both of them can participate before signing a child up for anything. It is important to ensure that their schedules allow time for the activity. It is not fair to sign a child up for something if he or she will not be able to make it to all events. 

Create a schedule 

Parents whose children have many extracurricular activities or a complex schedule need to have a family calendar. There are online options that parents can use to create a calendar anyone can access from a phone, computer or another device at any time. These calendars allow everyone to communicate and make changes through the app or website. This is a good way to help everyone stay on the same page about the schedule.