Maximize your Child Custody Schedule by Making the Most of Holidays

You have to be at the top of your game when creating a child custody schedule. The child visitation plan that you and your ex agree on will impact you for years to come. It will control how often you see your children until they are 18 years old and it also determines child support payments. You want to have as much time with your children as possible (especially if you are the non-custodial parent). So, it is vital that you know the best tactics to maximize your visitation time. As you’re creating your child custody schedule you have to learn how to make the most of holiday time so you can spend as much time as possible with your children.

Let’s say that two parents have worked out a visitation schedule where the non-custodial parent has the kids on alternate weekends. The custodial parent has the children the rest of the time. We plugged this scenario into a calendar and figured out that the non-custodial parent has the children 19%. No parent would be happy with that low of time with the children. If we then add a typical holiday schedule–dividing them up evenly between the parents, it brings the percentage up to 22%. That’s a nice little increase–but you can do even better.

If you’re the non-custodial parent you want to increase your time with your children–because you want to see them more and because you want your child support payments to go down. The trick to maximizing your holiday time is to try to get as many holidays as you can beyond the big ones. Holidays like Columbus Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Veteran’s Day, etc. And, when you schedule in the holiday make it last as long as possible. Make the pick-up times earlier and the drop-off times later. Extend the holiday into an overnight stay. And, in the case of the big holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, try to make them an entire week. Along with doing this, you should request time with your child during every school break and vacation. And make those times last as long as possible as well.

You’re obviously going to need to be reasonable about this–but it is a convenient and easy way to spend more time with your child. Why should your ex be upset that you want Timmy to spend an extra two hours with you on a school holiday? You can be creative about the scheduling and make the holidays really work for you and your children. The results of pushing holiday times–without being too ridiculous–can make a dramatic difference in the percentage of time you have with your child. In the case illustrated before, we can increase the percentage to 42%! And that amazing result came from solely using holidays to boost your visitation time.

Discover how Child custody & visitation software can help you create the ideal Child custody schedule.

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Origin: Divorce Advice For Men