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Co-Parenting

Divorce and Making a Smooth Back-to-School Transition

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Going back to school after a divorce is stressful for both parents and kids, but preparation, communication, and consistency help. It is important to plan for new school year by reintroducing routines even before school starts, making the most of your summer parenting time, keeping schools informed if needed, and having consistent schedules across households. Remember this transition is hardest for your children.

Back to School and Co-parenting

The shift from summer break to going back to school is tough for any family, but when parents are in the middle of a divorce, or adjusting after one, it can feel even more difficult. With kids bouncing between households, new schedules to manage, and emotions running high, creating a smooth transition is key. Here are some strategies to help make back-to-school easier for both children and parents going through divorce:

Start Preparing Before School Begins

Summer often means late nights, fun routines, and relaxed schedules. A sudden shift back into school mode can be jarring, especially for children that are splitting time between two homes. A helpful approach is to begin reintroducing the idea of school at least a week before classes start. This can include shopping for supplies, attending school orientations, and resetting bedtime routines.

If one parent has most of the school-year parenting time, it may make sense for the child to spend that final week before school with them. This helps children settle into the household where they will spend most school nights, making the transition smoother.

Make the Most of Your Summer Parenting Time

For parents who don’t have majority time during the school year, summer is a valuable opportunity. It often comes with more parenting time and less rigid schedules. Use this period to build memories and connection, so when the school year begins and schedules tighten, you will feel you made the most of your time together.

Communicating with the School When Necessary

Should the school know about your divorce? It depends. In many cases, schools don’t need detailed information. However, giving your child’s teacher or school counselor a heads-up can be helpful. They may notice changes in behavior at school that you don’t see at home. More importantly, if there are issues such as changes in pickup and drop-off rights or safety concerns, the school should be informed right away.

Try to Have Consistent Routines in Both Homes

Consistency is one of the best ways to support kids during times of change. Children thrive when they know what to expect, whether it’s bedtimes, homework schedules, or school-day morning rituals. Divorce already disrupts stability, so keeping routines as steady as possible will help your kids feel secure.

Shared parenting apps such as Our Family Wizard or Talking Parents can help manage schedules and reduce miscommunication. For kids, something as simple as a shared paper calendar in both homes can also make a big difference, they can check it themselves and know where they will be on any given day.

Remember Back to School is Harder on the Kids

While parents will feel the strain of adjusting to new schedules, it is important to remember that your children feel the impact even more deeply. They are shifting households, finding new routines, and dealing with the emotional weight of your separation. By keeping this perspective, you can approach transitions with empathy and patience, making the back-to-school season less stressful for everyone.

His offices are located at 2431 Aloma Ave. #124, Winter Park, FL. 32792 and 3270 Suntree Blvd. Suite 103G, Melbourne, FL. 32940

You may contact Anthony Diaz by calling 407-212-7807 or by email An*****@************aw.com or visit www.AnthonyDiazLaw.com.

And if you found this article helpful, please leave us a review HERE.  

Five Successful Co-Parenting Strategies for Summer Break that Prioritize Children’s Well-Being While Promoting Peace and Stability Between Co-Parents

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1. Make a Summer Plan Together

Start with a shared calendar and open communication. Talk through travel, camps, family visits, and downtime. Agreeing on the summer schedule in advance reduces surprises—and stress. Kids feel secure when they know what’s coming next and see both parents working as a team.

 Peacemaker Tip: Use co-parenting apps to coordinate plans in writing. It builds clarity and avoids last-minute misunderstandings.

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2. Keep Routines With a Relaxed Spirit

Summer should be fun, but children still need structure. Mealtimes, bedtimes, and screen-time guidelines should stay consistent across both homes when possible. It creates comfort and stability during a season full of change.

 Peacemaker Tip: Flexibility is key—balance routine with the spontaneity of summer joy.

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3. Cheer Each Other On From Afar

When your co-parent takes the kids on a trip or celebrates a birthday, encourage your children to enjoy it fully. Support their joy without jealousy. Children shouldn’t feel torn about where they’re having fun.

 Peacemaker Tip: A simple “That sounds like a great time!” goes a long way in helping your child feel safe and loved in both homes.

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4. Share the Load, Not the Stress

Work together on summer expenses—camp fees, extra childcare, or outings. Having a clear financial plan prevents resentment and models responsible teamwork for your kids.

 Peacemaker Tip: Frame money talks around the question: What’s best for the kids this summer?

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5. Make Space for Their Memories

Let children tell you stories from their other home without judgment or interrogation. Listen with joy, not tension. They need to feel free to love both parents openly.

 Peacemaker Reminder: Your peaceful presence allows your children to be their whole selves—with you, and with your co-parent.

Mr. Diaz is dedicated to his work helping clients with complex family issues by using collaborative practices to reach peaceful agreements.

His offices are located at 2431 Aloma Ave. #124, Winter Park, FL. 32792 and 3270 Suntree Blvd. Suite 103G, Melbourne, FL. 32920.

You may contact Anthony Diaz by calling 407-212-7807 or by email An*****@************aw.com or visit www.AnthonyDiazLaw.com.

Positive Co-Parenting During and After the Divorce

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Divorce is a stressful time that can be intensified when children are involved. Yet, in the chaos and emotional trials, there is an opportunity for you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse to embrace positive co-parenting practices that prioritize the well-being of your children. While it is natural for divorcing couples to harbor resentment and disagreements, fostering a collaborative approach to parenting can mitigate the negative impacts on children and even lay the groundwork for healthier relationships post-divorce.

One of the fundamental challenges of co-parenting post-divorce can be different parenting styles between households. What is important is for you and your co-parent to set aside personal differences and establish a common ground for how you will co-parent your children as they grow up.

Positive Co-Parenting

The process of divorce itself can play a pivotal role in shaping the dynamics of your co-parenting relationship. Litigated divorces, marked by conflict and adversarial proceedings, exacerbate tensions between parents, making cooperation challenging. In contrast, choosing Collaborative Divorce provides a platform for constructive dialogue and mutual decision-making. Collaborative Divorce empowers you to craft personalized parenting plans that reflect your children’s best interests and creates a sense of ownership and cooperation.

Central to successful co-parenting is effective communication that is focused solely on your children’s needs. By re-framing discussions away from personal grievances and towards the well-being of your children, you can work through challenges with empathy and understanding. Non-adversarial environments fostered by either Mediation or Collaborative Divorce offer you  the opportunity to model conflict resolution and demonstrate a united front in parenting, despite the dissolution of your romantic relationship.

An apt analogy for co-parenting post-divorce is likening it to a business partnership, with the business of raising your children. A well-crafted parenting plan provides a framework for collaboration and sets clear expectations for everyone.

Ultimately, positive co-parenting during and after divorce will lay the foundation for your children’s emotional resilience and future relationships. By witnessing their parents working together with grace and cooperation, your children will learn valuable conflict resolution skills and the importance of prioritizing familial bonds. Investing in collaborative co-parenting not only benefits your children in the immediate aftermath of divorce but equips them with essential life skills for the future.

Anthony J. Diaz is an experienced family law attorney focusing on Mediation and Collaborative Divorce. His offices are located at 2431 Aloma Ave Suite #124, Winter Park, FL. 32792 and 3720 Suntree Blvd., Suite 103G, Melbourne, FL. 32940.

You may contact Anthony Diaz by calling 407-212-7807 or by email an*****@************aw.com or visit anthonydiazlaw.com for more information.

And if you found this article helpful, please leave us a review HERE.

Parenting Plans: The Advantages of Making a Parenting Plan

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Let’s say that you are in the process of a divorce, and things look like they are being finalized. It seems like you and your spouse have agreed on many issues—including issues related to the children. But then your attorney tells you that you and your ex need to agree on another document — a parenting plan. It seems like a long, detailed document…do you have to do it? What are the benefits of doing a parenting plan…?

What is a Parenting Plan?

Parenting Plans

Parenting plans are relatively new in the world of family law. First required in 2018, parenting plans are a roadmap for parents to figure out almost every aspect of co-parenting children’s lives. The parenting plan is as long as it is because it covers almost every conceivable issue that divorced couples may encounter when it comes to making joint decisions about a minor child.

The model parenting plan, developed by the Florida Supreme Court can be found here.

The parenting plan will have time-sharing schedules, but it goes beyond just time-sharing and visitation. It will also cover things like who gets the kids during which holiday breaks, who has the right of first refusal if a parent cannot watch a child, who will take and pay for the kids’ medical expenses, and extracurricular activities.

It will handle and address emergencies, vacations, school conferences, pick up and drop off locations, and a host of other details that you, in the midst of a divorce, and likely never having encountered this situation before, would never have thought of otherwise.

Your parenting plan is a plan that is agreed to by both parties—a judge can impose one on you, or else, create their own order, but obviously, you would much rather develop the parenting plan with your spouse, and work out arrangements that are best for both of you as opposed to leaving these decisions in the hands of a judge.

There actually are multiple parenting plans, some for parents who are more amicable and do not need so many details arranged in advance, and others that are more detailed, for parents who may anticipate fighting and conflict, and would rather have all the details agreed to in writing in advance. There are even parenting plans for parents who are or anticipate living a good distance from each other.

The Benefits of a Plan

Why make a plan? Even if you have to do it legally, what are the advantages of even doing one, or putting time or effort, or consideration into it?

The main advantage is avoiding conflict—and potentially litigation—later on.

The parenting plan lets both parents know what is going to happen in the future and informs both of their rights when it comes to the child.

In the old days, a typical mediation or settlement agreement may not have addressed every single minute detail of a joint child-rearing arrangement. Parents, usually new to the divorce process, would not know what issues will or could come up next month, year, or ten years down the line.

As a result, the typical medication or settlement agreement was often open to interpretation or ambiguity. Parents who had conflict would look to their agreement to see which parent was in the right and would find nothing in their divorce paperwork addressing what they were looking for.

The result would be fighting, conflict, no way to know who was “right,” and ultimately, if it got bad enough, ex-spouses would end up back in court.

Save the Fighting

On the surface, a parenting plan seems like more to fight about. It’s a long detailed document that you and your ex are going to have to agree to. But parenting plans are written in plain, easy-to-understand language. They have fill-in-the-blanks or lines for parents to write things in.

That gives them a big benefit: you and your ex can sit down together (to the extent possible), and try to discuss, and agree to things in advance. Of course, if you have a family law attorney, you can and should discuss these things with him or her first—but the ease and plain language of a parenting plan does provide some flexibility for you and your spouse to come to some agreement, even on some of the issues, before and instead of spending a lot of money on legal fees.

The end result is that you actually have less to fight about in your divorce because all of these details have been resolved separately by you and your ex-spouse.

In Your Hands

The parenting plan has another advantage, that is common to other forms of resolved conflict, like mediation: you are putting things in your own hands, instead of a judge’s.

In court, a judge could decide whatever they want when it comes to any of the items on that extensive parenting plan. In court, in the hands of a judge, there is no “back and forth,” that is, you cannot say to your spouse “I will let you do this if you let me do that.” It is all up to the court.

But the parenting plan empowers you. You can “give up” the items on the plan that are not as important to you, and fight for the things that are important to you. You can re-write some of the language, add things, or create new provisions that may be unique to your own specific situation.

When you are finally done, you will be grateful that you have a “roadmap” to co-parenting with your spouse. You will have a document that specifically says what you and your spouse can and cannot do. In the end, if done properly, the parenting plan will potentially save you a lot of time, arguing, conflict, and money.

Questions about child custody, visitation, time-sharing, or your parenting plan?

Anthony J. Diaz is an experienced family law attorney focusing on Mediation and Collaborative Divorce. His offices are located at 2431 Aloma Ave Suite #124, Winter Park, FL. 32792 and 3720 Suntree Blvd., Suite 103G, Melbourne, FL. 32940.

You may contact Anthony Diaz by calling 407-212-7807 or by email an*****@************aw.com or visit anthonydiazlaw.com for more information.

And if you found this article helpful, please leave us a review HERE.

Parenting Plans: Crafting an Effective Framework

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When you are going through a divorce with children involved, there are a lot of issues that need to be worked out between the parents when it comes to raising the children and paying for their needs. Even if you do agree on things like child support, visitation, or time-sharing, themselves contentious, time-consuming issues to work out, there are still so many details that need to be agreed upon by the parents.

Who will pick up and drop off the kids? What extracurriculars will they participate in, and who pays? What about uncovered medical expenses? Who decides on the child’s diet? Literally, every detail of a child’s life needs to be coordinated between the two now-divorced parents.

A Lot of Fighting

In the old days, this led to a lot of very costly, time-consuming, and expensive fighting. Getting parents who may be hostile to one another to agree to anything is tough, but now they have to agree to every single detail about raising the child, now and in the future, and coordinate their co-parenting activities as divorced parents.

If parents forgot any detail about any of this when the divorce was finalized, they would likely be back in court, fighting about it later on.

The Move to Parenting Plans

That’s why, in 2018, Florida moved to what is known as a parenting plan. A parenting plan is a pre-written form, with almost every detail about the child’s life, upbringing, and coordination between parents, pre-written on a form. All the parents have to do is fill in blanks or check in boxes.

The parenting form, which can be found here, contains things that you may not, at first, think about. For example, the form has:

  • Every detail of when the children are with which parent, both on a regular basis, as well as during extended school breaks and holidays. The plan has model time-sharing schedules, which provide equal or near equal time with each parent (sometimes called 4/3/3/4, 7/7, 2/2/3/3, Or 2/2/5/5 rotating schedules), but the parents can opt for an unequal schedule, where one parent has more than 50% of the overnights with the kids.
  • Who registers the kids in extracurricular activities, and who pays for what percentage of the expenses related to the activities.
  • When it comes to time with the kids when the kids don’t have school, which child’s school schedule will be used (if there are multiple kids in different schools).
  • How emergency time-sharing changes are handled.
  • Who gets to choose vacation dates with the child first.
  • Who transports the kids to the other parent, and who pays what percentage of those costs.
  • Which parent’s address is used as the contact address for the kids.
  • How often and by what medium the parents can communicate with each other, as well as with the kids when they are with the other parent.

Parents may also want to include items for the future, especially if there are young kids so that the parenting plan doesn’t need to be revisited when young children reach the teenage or young adult years.

This is just a short list to give you an example of the detail that is contained in a parenting plan. At first, it may seem onerous to fill the entire form out. But the goal is to reduce the confusion and ambiguity that often lands parents back into court later on and to provide clarity about the rights and responsibilities of the parents.

There is even a separate parenting plan for parents who are long distance from each other, with provisions that are unique to parents in this situation. There are separate parenting plans for parents who are generally amenable to working out problems or situations as they may arise in life, and a more structured, rigid plan, for parents who do not work well together and, thus, may need more details included in the parenting plan.

You Can be Flexible

Although the parenting plan is a pre-written “fill in the blank” form, that does not mean that parents have to stick to the constraints of the form. Parents are free to modify, add to, or alter the form in whatever way fits their unique situation.

There is no right way or wrong way to fill out a parenting plan. The parents can model the plan how they see fit, with whatever provisions work for them. For example, parents can include who will pay for a minor’s car when the minor gets old enough or how the parents will save money for the child’s eventual college education. Parents can add, subtract or modify language in the plan.

Parents who resolve their differences through mediation or some other out-of-court resolution have more flexibility, given that they can craft whatever they want in a parenting plan without just relying on what a judge decides.

A judge will ultimately have to approve of a parenting plan, but so long as the parties agree and there is nothing harmful in the plan to the children, most judges will approve the plan that the parents have agreed to in mediation or through negotiation.

Considerations for the Parenting Plan

There are a number of factors you should consider when filling out your parenting plan. Some of the more important ones include:

  • How well the parents get along and communicate—the better communication is, the less rigid or detailed the parenting plan may have to be
  • If a parent has a less flexible work schedule or a schedule that does not work as well with a child’s school schedule, that should be considered
  • If a parent may, possibly, need to relocate more than 50 miles from the other parent
  • How familiar the child is with his or her school or neighborhood, and the proximity to the child’s friends or extended family
  • Whether a child has special needs or disabilities which may alter the ability of the child to go from one home to the other on a regular basis

Your parenting plan is a vitally important document in your divorce and in your child’s life. Make sure you have attorneys that can explain it to you and give you the pros and cons of any decisions or choices you make on the form. We can help you craft a parenting plan that works for you. Contact us for help with your time-sharing and child custody case or for help with your parenting plan.

Anthony J. Diaz is an experienced family law attorney focusing on Mediation and Collaborative Divorce. His offices are located at 2431 Aloma Ave Suite #124, Winter Park, FL. 32792 and 3720 Suntree Blvd., Suite 103G, Melbourne, FL. 32940.

You may contact Anthony Diaz by calling 407-212-7807 or by email an*****@************aw.com or visit anthonydiazlaw.com for more information.

And if you found this article helpful, please leave us a review HERE.