Although we may overlook it, time is our most precious asset. In a divorce, the importance of parenting time with children is rarely overlooked -- especially with regard to spending quality time with the children. The most effective way to maximize this quality time is to create a parenting time calendar -- literally a calendar in which the actual, or proposed, parenting time schedule is written out for months, or even years, into the future.
The creation of a parenting time calendar can be an invaluable tool in understanding the realities of how a parenting plan imputes important dates in the future such as school breaks, birthdays, holidays, and any other date which may be significant. By creating this calendar, it helps visualize the future and can alert a parent to a potential future conflict, enabling them to be able to address the issue sooner rather than later -- thereby alleviating future potential stress and anxiety.
In addition, a parenting time calendar can also be useful in tracking historical parenting patterns -- especially in circumstances where one parent has a habit of repeatedly cancelling or being tardy. It is one thing to say that an errant parent cancels regularly, but it is far more impactful to be able to provide documentation to point out with specificity all of the missed parenting times and dates -- along with any narrative notes describing with specificity what happened on a particular date.
If you are facing parenting time issues, contact the family law department at Cohn Lifland Pearlman Herrmann & Knopf LLP. Our attorneys have experience helping client’s create parenting time calendars and we can help save your time.