If you are going through a divorce, you probably have plenty of questions about how you’re going to divide holidays with your children between you and your divorcing spouse. It can get complicated because you both naturally want to be with your children for their birthdays and meaningful holidays. There are, however, some standard scheduling techniques for dividing holidays with the other parent that can help. If you have visitation schedule concerns, consult with an experienced Cedar Park family lawyer today.
Many divorced parents adopt some form of an alternating schedule for holidays with their children. For example, you can divide the holidays that are important to you into two lists. These holidays typically include:
One of you will have your children over the holidays that are on the first list during even years and will have them for the holidays that are on the second list during odd years (and vice versa for the other parent). This means that you’ll never have to go more than one year without having your children for any specific holiday. Generally, parents put Thanksgiving on one list and Christmas on the other.
Some holidays are more important to one parent than they are to the other, and you can designate these as fixed holidays. For example, if you’re all about Halloween but your ex is happy with a picture of the kids’ costumes, you might want to keep Halloween on your fixed schedule. Many parents also like to fix their own birthdays – along with Mother’s Day and Father’s Day (respectively) – as their scheduled day with the children each year.
Three-day holidays like President’s Day, Labor Day, and Memorial Day are a great opportunity to do something special with your children, so these holidays tend to be a hot commodity. Many parents include these on their alternating schedule, or they simply allow whichever parent happens to have the kids that weekend to keep them through the Monday. This can get tricky, however, if one parent has more weekends with the kids. When it comes to three-day weekends, you might have to get creative.
Your child’s birthdays can be the most difficult to share of all. Both parents naturally want to spend time with their children on their birthdays every year. If you and your ex live close enough, this is probably doable. If not, birthdays can be difficult – especially if your child’s birthday happens to fall during the school year.
If you and your children’s other parent live near each other, you might be able to simply split the important holidays (mornings with mom and afternoon’s with dad – or vice versa) and to divide the rest (the long weekends and school breaks). There are, however, plenty of other considerations to take into account, including:
Any of these can complicate an already complicated issue. If you and your ex are able to work together, you’ll likely find workarounds that work for you.
Your holiday schedule with your children is important, and the skilled family attorneys at The Jackson Law Firm in Cedar Park and Round Rock, Texas, have the experience, compassion, and dedication to help you hammer out a holiday visitation schedule that works for you. We’re here to help, so please don’t hesitate to contact us online or call us at (512) 528-1900 today.
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