Going through a divorce is cause for high levels of stress. You have a lot on your plate, especially as a parent who also needs to focus on matters like custody disputes, visitation schedules, child support payments and more.
While it may take time to decide what custody arrangement will work best for your situation, you can start by examining all available options. In particular, if you and your co-parent have a contentious relationship, you may want to look into parallel parenting.
The use of parallel parenting
As Psychology Today points out, parallel parenting helps many co-parents in the aftermath of a divorce. This option allows you to share responsibility and rights while avoiding direct interactions with one another. This provides a great balance of the support of a two-parent system, while also sparing your child from the potential trauma of witnessing their parents arguing or fighting.
For some people, cooperating after a divorce is a distant dream. Even being in the same room without tempers boiling over may seem like an impossible feat. It is for people just like this that parallel parenting works best for.
How does it work?
You will communicate over text-based mediums instead of interacting directly in person or even through video or phone calls. You may communicate through email, phone texts or messaging applications. Depending on your judge, you may also face orders to use a third-party app that the court can monitor. This way, they can keep a record of how you and your co-parent speak to one another, which they will use when your parallel parenting plan comes up for review – something that happens once a year.
Consider speaking with legal help to learn more about this option if it sounds like it might fit your situation well.
