Five Tips For Making Child Support Painless

With today’s divorce rate inching toward 60 percent, many couples are looking for ways to lower the emotional trauma for their children as much as they can. Heated arguments and accusations, bitter custody battles, fights over finances can completely shatter families and scar children psychologically for the rest of their lives.

The following five tips may help divorced couples ease some of their wounds and make a more collaborative and pain-free child support plan.

1. Compromise On Custodial Arrangements

When a couple divorces they must decide who will take custody of the child. Joint custody is a fair arrangement with both parents involved in the decision-making process.

It can ease a lot of headaches. This arrangement allows children to have equal quality and bonding time with each parent.

Decisions related to school, medical needs, and the child’s upbringing must involve both mom and dad.

In addition to splitting up the custodial days of the week, parents need to consider dividing holidays and vacation time in a practical and fair way. Local legal help; for instance Orlando, Florida divorce attorneys for central Florida residents, can give the objectivity a divorcing couple needs to help them make sound decisions.

2. Seek Co-Parent Counseling

Parents who are fighting their way through a divorce often have difficulty seeing eye-to-eye on many issues. Despite their best efforts to shield their child, there is usually discord about parenting styles.

A licensed counselor who specializes in co-parenting can be an important lifeline during times of increased tension. The counselor can help bring a balanced perspective to an otherwise harsh discussion.

The counselor can help bring a balanced perspective to an otherwise harsh discussion. They can gently but firmly remind mom and dad that children are not bargaining chips, and the children’s needs must always come first.

They can also offer tips for handling unresolved issues in the future, and act as a neutral third-party to arbitrate and advocate for the children’s sake.

3. Work Toward An Amicable Financial Plan

If both parents can agree to raise the children together, they will also need to devise a reasonable budget that includes the expenses necessary to give everything the children will need. While their incomes may not be equal, a joint financial planning agreement can be equally fair to both parents, and should include funds for school, personal and social needs, food, clothing, college, health insurance, and other important expenses.

4. Pull Together In Medical and Emergency Cares

Nothing hurts a parent more than when their child has an accident. When you’re also a divorced parent, the emotional toll can be excruciating.

A parental agreement should include medical and emergency care options that will allow both parents to make decisions based on their child’s medical condition. It should also include a clause that says both parties must be notified in case of an accident, illness, injury, need for surgery or life support.

5. Create A Child Support Plan

A workable child support plan can be personalized to meet the needs of each parent. If one works nights and needs to help with child care during the day, they shouldn’t hesitate to ask their attorney or counselor to help them develop a financial plan and a time management schedule compatible with the needs of both parents.

Divorce is an arduous trial with which millions of American families have to contend. Finding ways to make it as painless and amicable as possible is important for both parents and children.

A willingness to compromise will help each family overcome emotional obstacles and move forward. Ultimately, child support really means family support with the child’s interest as the top priority.

Writer LaGeris Underwood Bell hopes this article will open the door to conciliatory dialogue between divorcing parents. Her research showed Orlando Florida divorce attorneys, Katz & Phillips, P.A., often pave the way for anguished couples on the rocky road to divorce, with experience and genuine concern for their clients has resulted in thousands of successful cases.