Montana law stipulates that a proposed parenting plan meet the best interest of the child standard. This means that whatever you and your child’s other parent agree to will ultimately allow your kid to thrive. There are a number of factors that you’ll need to take into account when crafting a plan that both meets this standard and works for you and your former partner.
Allocating parenting time
If you had it your way, you would likely want to keep your children around as close to 100% of the time as possible. However, it’s important to be realistic about your ability to provide quality care for your kids. For instance, if you work irregular hours, you may only be able to see your children for a couple of hours before or after school a few days a week. Alternatively, you may have to settle for seeing them during extended breaks when your kids don’t need to adhere to a strict schedule.
Prepare for things to go wrong
There will inevitably come a time when your car breaks down or you have to take an extra shift at work with little notice. It’s also possible that you or your kids will get sick on a day that you’re supposed to watch them. This is why it’s important to have some flexibility built into your child custody plan.
For instance, the plan might call for you and the other parent to swap days or to send the kid to your grandparents until you’re able to properly care for them. Having protocols in place ahead of time may prevent an argument with the other parent or otherwise negate the stress and frustration that you or your child might feel.
A quality parenting plan can make it easier to be a good role model for your child. This is because you’ll always know where your child is and what should happen if an emergency arises. A custody plan can also have protocols in place to resolve any disputes that might occur in a timely and amicable fashion.