Is Alternating Weeks Of Parenting Time Financially Sustainable?

Many families sign parenting plans with alternating weeks, but most of them modify them to a different co-parenting schedule at some point before the children reach adulthood. Parents usually commit to this co-parenting schedule on their initiative, rather than a judge choosing it. It is one of the surest ways to ensure that the parents have equal parenting time, but it is more challenging to implement than most families realize. Alternating weeks of parenting time is most likely to succeed when the children are young, when the parents live close to each other, and when they have other family members living nearby. Things get more complicated when the children’s school commitments and the parents’ work obligations get more time consuming; if the parents remarry and you add stepfamily obligations into the mix, it is even more of a challenge. Despite this, you have the right to draft a parenting plan that works for you and to abide by it, even if that means alternating weeks of parenting time. For help drafting a feasible parenting plan that is different from most people’s parenting plans, contact a Birmingham child custody lawyer.

You Can Exercise Parenting Time on Alternating Weeks, but Work Is an Every Week Obligation

A couple divorced when their children were 12, 11, and eight, and their parenting plan indicated alternating weeks of parenting time for each parent. During the marriage, the husband’s income vastly exceeded the wife’s, and he often worked overtime; the wife worked as a teacher’s aide at the same school that the couple’s children attended. By the time the divorce was final, the children’s school had not renewed the wife’s contract, and she had started a new job at another school, which meant that she had to pay for childcare for part of the time that she was at work. Meanwhile, the husband could not work overtime during his parenting time, because he did not have childcare to accommodate an overtime schedule. Therefore, the family’s income was lower than it had been during the marriage, and their expenses were higher. Therefore, the wife petitioned the court for an increase in alimony and child support, and during the litigation, the issue arose of whether the family should modify the parenting plan.

Even though judges usually only ask high-school aged teens to give their opinions on timesharing between their parents, the judge asked the children about their preferences, and all of them said that they preferred to keep the alternating weeks. Therefore, the conclusion was that the family would have to live more modestly to keep their parenting plan. The judge did not change the division of marital property that the court had ordered in the divorce, but he did increase the father’s child support obligations to accommodate the mother’s childcare expenses.

Contact Peeples Law About Alternating Weeks of Parenting Time Against All Odds

A Birmingham family law attorney can help you if you are determined to stick with alternative weeks of parenting time even after your children enter school.  Contact Peeples Law in Birmingham, Alabama today to schedule a consultation.

Source:

scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8875880219875081479&q=divorce+affair&hl=en&as_sdt=4,61,62,64&as_ylo=2015&as_yhi=2025