Organizing Extracurricular Activities in a Parenting Plan
An important issue to consider when organizing a parenting plan in a divorce or paternity proceeding is the extracurricular activities that your children wish to participate in.
At a time as stressful as a legal procedure of this nature, we can overlook the importance of extracurricular activities, not only for the children, who are the ones who will enjoy them, but also for the parents, who will not only see their time with the children altered by these activities, but they will usually entail extra expenses. whether in registration, registration, uniforms, trips.
That is why it is important to pay special attention to this issue, and decide:
- Who will decide what activities the child will do?
- Will we decide together, since it could alter our time shared with him or her and generate extra expenses?
- My ex has already decided and now I find myself with an expense that I cannot afford or a commitment that I cannot assume.
- What if the problem is not time or money, but the activity itself? (I may consider the activity to be inappropriate for my child)
- Each parent will decide what the children will do exclusively in the time they are with that parent?
- Who will be responsible for the payment of tuition, registration, uniforms, tournaments, trips?
- Who will be responsible for transporting the child(ren) to related activities or trips?
Obviously, the answer to these questions will depend on the dynamics of each family. But it is important to think about this, since our children will be interested in different activities throughout their childhood and adolescence, and it is good that parents accompany and support them within our possibilities.
Now…. We already decided and it was written in a legal document. Is that all? Probably not. Then we will have to deal with the real situation in practice.
