Navigating Co-Parenting After Divorce: Tips For Success
Are you in a co-parenting situation and you’re not sure how to co-parent with your ex-partner? My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m an attorney with Wirth Law Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve been doing this for about seven years now. I want to help you make law easy by just giving you some tips on how to co-parent in a custody dispute, whether you’re at the start, the middle, or the end of it.
This is something that I deal with all the time, not just professionally, but personally also. In my second marriage, I have an amazing son from my first marriage, and I have three beautiful bonus children from my current one. So co-parenting isn’t something that I just advise people on. It’s something that I have to practice a lot daily.
Importance of Respect in Co-Parenting
One of the most important things in co-parenting is to be respectful to your co-parent, whether the divorce was filed five minutes ago, whether the case has been ongoing for months, or whether it’s been over for years. Your co-parents for life, your co-parents from the day they are born to the day they start going to school, to the day they start driving, to the day they graduate high school, to the day they go to college or trade school, to the day that they get married, to the day you have grandkids. It never stops stopping.
So the choice is yours about whether or not you want to have peace or acrimony. Something that I advise my clients to do a lot is to ensure that every parent gets to talk with the child every day, even if it’s not for long. I mean, a five-minute phone call in the morning, hey, good morning, I love you.
Effective Communication in Co-Parenting
Five-minute phone call right before bed, hey, good night, I love you so much. That’s, I mean, that’s the bare minimum that I encourage, but it’s so important just to help make sure that the child gets to have that contact with both parents, even if you’re not the custodial parent. If you’re the non-custodial parent but it’s your visitation time, offer that same courtesy to the custodial parent.
If you have to talk with your ex about the children, keep it respectful, and keep the language above board. Don’t resort to name-calling, don’t drag up the past. Just bear in mind, that exes are exes for a reason.
Get Legal Advice for Co-Parenting Situations
If you have questions about this or you’re not sure about how you should handle a certain situation, you must speak with an attorney and get some advice before you accidentally do something that could hurt your case in the long run. My name is Carl Birkhead. I’m with Wirth Law Office, and I hope that this has helped you make law easy. Thank you.
