Your divorce leaves both you and your ex with custody rights. You have to alternate weeks, with the children living with you for a week and then with your ex for a week. It’s not a problem because you both live near each other, so they don’t have far to travel, they don’t lose their friends and they can stay in the same school.
In a lot of ways, this is an ideal custody setup, but you find yourself quickly wondering about the best time to make the exchange. When should the children come to your house? Does your ex need to drive them over? Do you need to drive them back? Is that really the easiest way to do it?
It may not be. This type of exchange is common, but it can lead to issues if the children prefer one parent over the other or if you and your ex do not get along following the divorce. You want to limit stress, so you need another option.
One thing to think about may be simply picking the children up after school. If they’re too young for school and go to a day care, you can do the same thing there. If the switch happens at the end of the week, you can do it on Friday; if it happens at the end of the week, you can do it on Monday. Either way, one of you drops them off in the morning and the other picks them up.
Certainly, this is not the only way to do it, but it helps to show why you really need to consider your options when setting up a custody plan. You can find one that works for your family.
