Tennessee has a statute in place dictating that all parents who share children under the age of 18 and plan to co-parent together must create something called a permanent parenting plan. The statute seeks to help parents maintain a cordial relationship after divorce so that they are able to co-parent together effectively.
Per the Tennessee State Courts, children of divorce often fare well when they have the love and support of both parents. A parenting plan helps ensure that the child at the center of the custody issue maintains strong relationships with both parties. What are some of the things you might cover in your parenting plan?
Decision-making abilities
It may help you prevent future conflicts with your co-parent to outline who maintains responsibility for making decisions on your son or daughter’s behalf and when. Many parents decide to confer with one another before making any major decisions affecting schooling, religious upbringing, medical care and other important matters.
Conflict resolutions tactics
You may also want to include language in your parenting plan that discusses how you plan to resolve conflicts that inevitably arise during your co-parenting relationship.
Communication methods
Many Tennessee parents also outline how the child is to communicate with the other parent while staying at one parent’s home. For example, maybe that child has free reign to call the other parent whenever he or she likes, or maybe the child makes nightly phone calls to one parent while in the other parent’s care.
While these are some of the things you may want to address in your permanent parenting plan, you may also want to address additional areas that may otherwise cause conflict.
