The holiday season is coming up, and if you have recently gone through a divorce, you may be wondering what the best course of action is regarding holiday visitation for your children. The children will likely want to make sure they get to visit both sides of their family during Thanksgiving, so it is important that you and your ex-spouse come up with a fair parenting plan that works in the best interests of your children.
Common Parenting Time Arrangements for the Holiday Season
There is no “one-size-fits-all” parenting time agreement for the holidays. That said, there are a few common methods that divorced parents use to create a fair holiday parenting plan.
- Alternate holidays. For some parents, it makes sense to take an odd/even year approach to the holiday season. For example, one parent could have the children for Thanksgiving on even years, but Christmas for odd years. The other parent would have the children for Thanksgiving on odd years and Christmas on even years.
- The morning/evening split. If both parents are close together geographically, it could make sense to let one parent have the children during the holiday morning and the other to have the children during the evening. This works better for some holidays than others but is a fairly common method of handling visitation during the holidays.
- Celebrate on different days. Who says Thanksgiving has to fall on one day? One parent could have the children on the actual date of the holiday, and the other parent can plan a second holiday the weekend after.
- Have a fixed yearly schedule. For some parents, it is just easier to keep the same holiday schedule every year. Some parents may have different holidays that are important to them individually – maybe one parent doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, for example, so it makes sense for the children to visit the parent that is celebrating on that holiday.
JulianJohnson, P.C. wishes you a happy holiday season! If you ever have questions about your parenting plan, during the holidays or otherwise, we would be happy to help. Give us a call at (972) 459-4400 for a consultation.