Family Law

San Francisco Divorce Attorney Discusses Different Schedules for Different Families

By Scott Sagaria

San Francisco Divorce Attorney Discusses Different Visitation Schedules for Different Families

With all the discussion of Jon and Kate Gosselin?s separation and divorce, its property got a lot of people wondering, how on earth will they share those kids? From the news reports it appears the plan is for the parents to take turns in the house with the kids, which is an uncommon but not unheard of custody arrangement.

Many families with divorced, separated or never married parents have found a way to successfully share visitation time with the children. For some families, a traditional alternating weekend schedule works. Others include a weeknight or weekday visit, which sometimes is also an overnight. Still others try for an equal vistitation split of the children, alternating weeks ? a schedule which works well when parents live nearby and can successfully co-parent the children. For younger children whose parents want an equal timeshare, a popular schedule is the 2-2-3. In that schedule, the parents each take two weekdays, and then alternate the weekends. So Mom may have Mondays and Tuesdays, Dad has Wednesdays and Thursdays, and then they alternate the weekends, so each parent has five consecutive days at a time.

For families where the parents don?t live nearby, parents typically have to be more creative and more flexible with visitation schedules. While some families can afford a monthly or twice monthly airplane ticket for one or more members of the family, many cannot. So some give all the school holidays and most of summer to the non-custodial parent. Others include visits in the children?s residence at any other times, to allow the non-custodial parent to visit as often as possible.

Parenting apart as a result of a divorce or separation is a challenge, but with cooperation, patience and flexibility, many parents are able to find a schedule that works for not only themselves, but their children. The goal of any visitation arrangement is for it to serve the best interests of the children. This may require concessions and cooperation from parents, but its ultimately results in the best outcome.

Here at Sagaria Law, we offer a full range of family law and legal services including divorce, paternity, adoption, child custody and visitation matters, child support, spousal support, alimony, juvenile dependency, domestic violence, division of property, grandparent visitation and custody, etc. We have seven Northern California locations including San Jose, San Francisco, Redwood City, Fremont, Salinas, Roseville and Sacramento. We offer a free thirty minute consultation, either in person at any of our offices, or over the phone. Call our offices today and we can connect you with an attorney immediately or we can schedule your free consultation with one of our family law attorneys: (408) 279-2288 or (800) 941-6730 or visit www.sagarialaw.com

Full post as published by California Family Law Blog on July 20, 2009 (boomark / email).