When you go through a divorce and have children with a spouse, it’s important to work on a visitation schedule as soon as possible. Yes, a court can determine a visitation schedule for you if you both can’t agree, but it’s in your best interests to work together to come up with one that is amenable to your schedules.
A visitation schedule has a number of different items on it. For example, it may explain who has visitation rights on the weekends and at what time those visitations should take place. You can include information on how holiday weekends will be handled, too. For example, if a weekend is extended due to Memorial Day, you may decide that the parent with visitation that weekend keeps the children, or you may decide on another arrangement.
The visitation arrangement may also have information on how you handle holidays and events during different years. It’s common to have children every other holiday, so you may have a section that states who has the children for holidays on even-numbered years or odd-numbered years.
One of the most important pieces of information in the visitation agreement dictates who has the children primarily. One parent typically has primary custody while the other is granted visitation in this section of the visitation schedule.
Other things you might want to include in your visitation schedule include what happens if your child falls ill or if one of the parents gets sick. You may also want to address what happens to the items that you send to the other parent’s home. This can help prevent items from going missing or collecting at the other home.
These are just a few things you may want to address in a visitation agreement. Your attorney can help you draw up an agreement that meets your specific needs.
Source: FindLaw, “Form to Establish a Visitation Schedule,” accessed April 20, 2017