3 Tips for Traveling With Your Child If You Share Custody
The summer is a great time to travel with your kids and experience new things together. However, if you’re a parent that has shared custody with your child’s other parent, taking trips can oftentimes be very difficult. Regardless of this, there are things you can do that can make it more likely that you’ll be able to travel with your child without running into a lot of dead ends or red tape. To help with this, here are three tips for traveling with your child if you share custody.
Double-Check Your Custody Agreement or Parenting Plan
Once your custody agreement was finalized, it was likely laid out how the sharing of custody and the parenting plan was going to take place. So before you even begin making your plans for your travels, it’s vital that you double-check these documents to see what you’re legally allowed to do as far as traveling with your child. According to Teo Spangler, a contributor to USA Today, you may only have custody of your child for a few days at a time normally. But some parenting plans stipulate that you can have longer periods of time during vacations. By knowing what you’re legally allowed to do, it can help you plan an approved trip.
Create Plans Way In Advance
After you’ve familiarized yourself with what your custody agreement or parenting plan allows, you should now start planning for your travels, even if they wouldn’t be for months and months. According to Steve Mindel, a contributor to The Huffington Post, planning your travels way in advance will give you ample time to run your itinerary by the other parent and make any adjustments that might be necessary. It can also help the other parent warm up to the idea of you taking your child on a vacation without them. And if there are any objections, you’ll now have time to figure them out and find a solution that will, hopefully, work for everyone involved.
Stick To What’s Been Consented To
According to Mike Broemmel, a contributor to LiveStrong.com, once everything with your travels has been agreed to, it’s important that you have the other parent literally sign off on your plans. By doing this, you’ll be able to have some legal standing if the other parent randomly decides that they want to change the plan or cancel things while you’re traveling. On your end of the deal, make sure that you and your child stick to what’s been consented to and is on your itinerary. The last thing you want is to have your vacation ruined or cut short because the other parent found out that you actually planned to stay out longer or take an unscheduled detour somewhere else.
If you share custody of your child and want to be able to take him or her on a trip, consider using the tips mentioned above to help ensure this adventure goes off without a hitch.
