What Should I Expect in a Parenting Agreement?
A parenting agreement serves as a guide to parents and should contain a wide array of information from the parenting schedule to who is responsible for scheduling doctor’s appointments. A parenting agreement that is entered by the Court is binding and must be complied with absent any extenuating circumstances. A parenting agreement is referred to as an Allocation Judgment or an Allocation of Parental Responsibilities. A good parenting agreement will have multiple parts.
First, it will allocate decision making authority. Decision making authority broken up in different categories of health care, religion, education, and extracurriculars. A parent will either have sole decision-making authority where they are able to make all final decisions in a certain area, or parents will share joint decision making where they must agree to a decision before it can be made. There can be a mix and match of sole and joint between the four areas of decision making.
Second will be the allocation of parenting time.
Regular parenting time. Regular parenting time will address the typical day to day schedule of what the parties’ parenting time will look like. In some cases, parties will have equal parenting time while in others one parent may have more parenting time than the other. A regular parenting schedule will vary case by case and may need to be altered as circumstances change such as children getting older, parties’ changing jobs, or parties’ moving.
Holiday parenting time. Holiday parenting time should address all the holidays that a family celebrates, such as Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Christmas, or Chanukah. The parenting agreement should lay out what parent will have parenting time for each holiday. The holiday parenting schedule will usually take precedence over the regular parenting time. For more information on a good holiday parenting schedule, see our article on our website.
Summer/Vacation parenting time. During the summer months when children are not in school a different parenting schedule may be exercised. Some families may choose to keep the regular parenting time schedule during the summer months, but opt to give a period of time to each parent for consecutive parenting time. Vacation parenting time will allocate a number of days or weeks to each parent to utilize throughout the year for travel. Vacation parenting time typically requires advance notice to the other parent and may require one parent to provide flight information or a detailed itinerary laying out the trip.
Special Occasions. A parenting agreement should also lay out how many “special occasions” are allocated to each parent for a year and if there will be makeup time for the special occasion. A special occasion may be a wedding or a family reunion that the party wishes to bring the minor child/ren along to even if it does not fall during their parenting time. In this case, the parent may use a special occasion day to request the children are able to attend the event with them.
Right of First Refusal. When a parent is unable to be with the child for a certain number of hours chosen by the parties or an overnight, they must offer the Right of First Refusal to the other parent. This obligation requires that the parent who is unable to be with the child during their parenting time informs the other parent and offers them the opportunity to have parenting time with the child. If the parent refuses the parenting time, then the other parent may obtain a babysitter or request another family member watch the child while they are unable.
As children grow up and circumstances change often parenting agreements may need to be adjusted or created. The Law Office of Erin M. Wilson is able to assist you in altering your parenting agreement to make sure it is best suited for your family. Erin Wilson has drafted various parenting agreements and is able to start from scratch to create a parenting agreement that works for your unique needs or assist you in changing a parenting agreement that may no longer be effective. Contact The Law Office of Erin M. Wilson for a consultation regarding creating a parenting agreement or altering a parenting agreement already in place.
NOTICE: This blog is intended solely for informational purposes and should not be construed as providing legal advice. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have regarding this blog post.