Family Law Attorney — Birmingham, MI | Serving Oakland, Macomb, Wayne, Livingston, Monroe & surrounding counties
Family Law Attorney — Birmingham, MI | Serving Oakland, Macomb, Wayne, Livingston, Monroe & surrounding counties
A parenting plan — sometimes called a custody agreement or parenting time order — is the legal document that governs how divorced or separated parents share time and responsibilities for their children. A well-crafted plan prevents future disputes and gives children the stability they need.
Before drafting a parenting plan, it is important to understand the distinction between legal and physical custody. Legal custody refers to the right to make major decisions about your child’s education, healthcare, religious upbringing, and extracurricular activities. Physical custody refers to where the child primarily lives. Michigan courts can award joint or sole custody in either category. Most plans today involve joint legal custody with a primary physical custodian and a detailed parenting time schedule for the other parent.
The core of any parenting plan is the regular weekly schedule. Common arrangements include alternating weeks (week on/week off), a 2-2-3 rotation (two days with one parent, two with the other, then three with the first), or a primary/secondary arrangement where one parent has the child most of the time with the other parent having parenting time on alternating weekends and one weeknight. The right schedule depends on the ages of the children, the parents’ work schedules, and the geographic proximity of the two homes.
A comprehensive parenting plan addresses every holiday and school break, typically by alternating them between parents on an even/odd year basis. Common provisions cover Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, New Year’s, spring break, summer vacation, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, and each parent’s birthday. Vacation provisions should specify how much advance notice is required, whether passports can be obtained, and how travel outside the state or country is handled.
The plan should specify how parents will communicate about the children (e.g., a co-parenting app, email, or text), how major decisions will be made when parents disagree, and what constitutes an ’emergency’ that allows one parent to make a unilateral decision. It should also address how schedule changes are handled, what happens when a parent is late for an exchange, and how the children’s extracurricular activities will be managed.
Vague parenting plans are a primary source of post-divorce litigation. The more specific and comprehensive your plan, the less room there is for future disputes. Logan is a court-appointed Parenting Time Coordinator and brings exceptional skill to drafting plans that are detailed, child-centered, and built to last.
