Negotiating your Florida parenting plan is one of the most important steps when you divorce or break up with your children’s other parent. The terms in your parenting plan dictate how much time you get to spend with your children and will also influence the course of their futures.
Although ensuring you receive adequate access to your children and plenty of parenting time is important, you also need to think about decision-making authority and responsibility for their lives.
Florida law requires that you address different areas of your children’s lives in your parenting plan.
What kind of decision-making authority do you need to split with your ex?
Parents make all of the major decisions about what their children do and how they live their daily lives. Parents exert legal authority over their children and make decisions about their futures by deciding on things like their medical care and their education. Religion and personal daily habits are also crucial considerations.
Your parenting plan should either discuss how you will resolve disagreements when you make decisions in different areas or allocate the final authority for specific kinds of decisions to one parent or the other. You may feel very strongly, for example, about what educational support your children receive but trust that your spouse, who works as a nurse, could handle their major medical decisions.
Factors ranging from your personal belief systems to your history of supporting the children can influence the most appropriate way for you and your ex to divide authority and responsibilities in your Florida parenting plan.
Exploring what matters most to you when it comes to the lies that your children lead will help make it easier for you to share custody of your children with your ex.
