How do you Resolve Family Custody Issues Around Holidays?
Dealing with holiday access to children is an important topic, which is why it’s prudent to deal with the matter well ahead of time, before any major holidays are on the horizon. Leaving it for the last two to four weeks is usually a bad idea because people plan their holidays well in advance.
Lawyers should try to deal with all matters concerning children as soon as possible. It tends to be one of the most emotional topics, and also one that both parties want resolved quickly. When you’re dealing with that topic, you’ll have a discussion as to what the range of days are going to be in terms of parenting.
Once you get past the initial rubric of whether it’s going to be shared custody or whether one parent will be the primary parent, you quickly get into the discussion about holidays. You get together and map out all the kid’s school holidays. How do you want to handle them? From there, you try to have a conversation. Both parties think about it and the lawyer makes recommendations where appropriate.
Typically what happens is that the parents work it out themselves. If they can’t reach an agreement, then you put a detailed schedule in place for them to agree on. But these issues are dealt with early on so both parties can move forward knowing their children are looked after.