Separation or divorce is never easy, especially if there are children involved. If you and your partner have come to an agreement about parental responsibilities and splitting your time, implementation can sometimes be difficult and conflict can arise.
Simple daily decisions such as schedules, pick-up and drop-off times, activities, and expenses can easily lead to arguments and tension between the parents, so a parenting coordinator is often a good option to help with decision-making and ease any stress between parties.
If you’re hoping to minimize conflict and make the transition as smooth as possible, here are a few reasons to work with a parenting coordinator to help you move forward.
Ease and prevent conflict
People often choose to work with a parenting coordinator to ease and prevent any conflict between parties. Whether the separation is fairly recent, or if the parents are constantly in conflict with one another, a parenting coordinator can help to improve communication, make decision-making easier, and resolve disputes. Any decisions that involve the kids – from what foods they’re allowed to eat to which school they should go to – can lead to conflict when tensions are running high, so a coordinator will work with the parents to help them come to a decision and keep things civil.
Reduced stress
Co-parenting can be very stressful for both the parents and the children, especially when there is a continual disagreement. This inevitably leads to elevated stress levels, which in addition to the emotional strain the separation may have had on the family, can create an unhappy environment for all parties. A parenting coordinator will educate the parents on making decisions, avoiding conflict, and how to make sharing parental responsibilities as stress-free as possible. The kids will no doubt appreciate this too, as they won’t have the weight of their parent’s conflict on their shoulders.
More focus on what’s best for the children
When the parents are dealing with issues in their relationship, it’s easy for this to influence their decisions and for pride to come into play. A parenting coordinator will help the parents to create boundaries and separate their issues from the important choices they have to make regarding the kids. A third party will present a neutral perspective, and will help the parents to focus on what’s best for the children.
Ultimately, a parenting coordinator will help to make life easier for the whole family, and allow you to focus on what’s important, which is what’s right for the kids.