The Parenting Plan Outlines Your Parental Rights and Responsibilities

Your parenting plan is a blue-print for how you and your ex will raise your child.  Per statute, every major issue likely to arise in the course of raising your child to adulthood is supposed to be addressed in the parenting plan, from where the child will spend each day of Christmas vacation in any given year to who will decide the course of treatment for your child’s broken leg. 

Once you enter your final parenting plan, you cannot change it absent a substantial change in circumstances in the household of the non-moving party (the party that does not want to change the plan.).  Therefore, you need to think hard and often about the details in your parenting plan before agreeing to them.

The basic elements that need to be addressed in your parenting plan include:

• Whether one of the parents has engaged in abusive, neglectful, or inappropriate behavior;

• The residential schedule;

• The schedule for holidays and special occasions;

• The vacation schedule;

• Which parent has authority for which major decisions;

• Relocation Act requirements;

• Dispute Resolution

If you and the other side are able to get along, then your parenting plan will be largely irrelevant.  However, if you and the other side don’t get along, your parenting plan may be the most relevant and highly parsed document in your life.