Easter break is a wonderful time to make memories with your children and to celebrate the spring season. However, coparenting for divorced couples may be difficult during Easter.
Making memories with your children is paramount in all families, so dividing up the time to spend with them is very important for both parents. It is best to work together and create a vacation plan during the divorce settlement to eliminate any confusion. Most divorce settlements contain custody plans for visitation and parenting time. If you and your ex-spouse did not plan custody for vacation, you should do so soon, preferably well before the vacation week.
Some ways you can share custody are listed below.
Divide the Week
For some schools, Easter vacations start the Monday before Easter, so dividing the week in half is a good start. You could also divide the break in the following ways:
- Easter Sunday: You could divide Easter Sunday between both parents. For instance, you have custody of the children Easter morning, and the other parent has the children on Easter evening.
- Use two weekends: You could always divide Easter into two different weekends.
- Yearly: Many parents find it easier to divide Easter vacation yearly, such as splitting the odd years and even years between the two parents. This may be the best option to choose.
- Fixed holidays: You can assign different holidays, such as if you celebrate Christmas day, then the other parent can have Christmas Eve every year.
- Courts: Many courts offer a visitation schedule to divorced parents when they are unable to reach an agreement on their own.
Communication Is Key
In any relationship, communication is key and helps make difficult decisions a little easier to navigate. Plan your vacation well in advance with your child, and be sure to share that information with the other parent. Share your itinerary of where you and your child will be and when.
Children First
The holidays are meant for families to enjoy their time together, so make sure to put the children and their best interests first. Take their insight on what they would like to do for the vacation. It is important to keep communication with your child and make sure they know what is going on. Children like to be well-informed, and not knowing what is happening next may give them feelings of insecurity and anxiety.
Put your children’s feelings first as well. Try to separate your feelings away from the children.
Maintain Traditions or Make New Ones
It is common for families to have holiday traditions, but those are hard to uphold in a divorced family. Still, if possible, maintaining old traditions help children ease into the transition of the divorce and could possibly make it easier when deciding who has custody for the weekend.
However, it is understandable if you are not able to maintain your traditions. Making new memories and new traditions may be just as impactful to your child’s life. For example, instead of doing an Easter egg hunt at your home, consider doing it at a friend’s house or at the local church.
Enjoy Time to Yourself
One positive of not having your children for the holiday is that you finally get time to spend on yourself. Relax and enjoy the time to yourself, as parenting can be difficult and stressful. Work on something new, take on a new hobby, or work on Easter baskets for community shelters.
Media Child Custody Lawyers at Eckell Sparks Help Divorced Couples Solve Holiday Custody Issues
The holidays can be overwhelming, especially for divorced couples trying to figure out vacation time with their children. If you need help with a holiday custody schedule, speak with one of our Media child custody lawyers at Eckell, Sparks, Levy, Auerbach, Monte, Sloane, Matthews & Auslander, P.C. Call us at 610-565-3701 or fill out our online form for an initial consultation. Located in Media and West Chester, Pennsylvania, we proudly serve clients in Delaware County, Chester County, and Montgomery County.