A parenting plan is an essential part of a successful outcome to a child custody battle.
Regardless of who “wins” or how satisfied or otherwise you are with the decision of the custody court if it goes that far it is essential to have a good child custody parenting plan for the good of your child.

To arrive at a good,workable parenting plan you will perhaps need to consult with a family medaiator or custody evaluator but it is crucial to have some kind of parenting plan template.

Your parenting plan is a written agreement between parents as to how you are going to conduct your relationship whilst keeping your child’s welfare central to the matter. A good parenting plan template will allow you to foster a healthy relationship with both your child and ex partner or spouse.

Parenting Plan Template
Any good parenting plan template will address the following issues:

You can draw up your parenting plan with your ex partner and with the assistance of a child custody counsellor or expert or it may arise out of the use of a relationship or child custody mediation arrangement.

It is always better if you can agree a child custody parenting plan with your former spouse or partner rather than have a court directed parenting plan imposed.

Regardless of how you arrive at your plan it is useful to review and assess all previous correspondence and documentation that you should have received in the course of the child custody proceedings.

These papers may be court documents such as petitions, summonses, affidavits, answers and so on. They might also include all correspondence from your attorney and any agreements that may have been arrived at as a result of alternative conflict resolution procudures such as mediation or arbitration.

Clearly if there was a divorce or legal separation then these will be critical documents also to check out before trying to draft your child parenting plan with your former partner.

Once you have assembled all the documentaion you can find you need to meet with your former partner, either with the assistance of a counsellor or other professional or alone, and try to come to agreement as to the major issues outlined above.

If you are fortunate to come to agreement on a parenting plan then you should head to court, with the agreement of your former partner, and have the agreement ruled on by the judge and made an order of court.This action will ensure that your child custody parenting plan is legally binding and allow you to head back to court if there are any disputes or difficulties in relation to it’s implementation.