Parenting Plans for Families After Divorce: Including a Special Section on Child-inclusive Parenting Plans

by Mcwilliams, Joan H.

• ISBN13: 9780976866305
• ISBN10: 0976866307
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-06-30
• Publisher: McWilliams Mediation Group Ltd

Summary

Parenting Plans for Families After Divorce presents a fresh, contemporary, and practical guide that shows divorcing parents how to create a healthy and vibrant Post-Divorce Family. It acknowledges that while the parties' original family will take on a different form after the divorce, their original family will still exist and need to be nourished. It discards the "one size fits all" approach to divorce and provides creative processes and solutions that strive to meet the needs of each family member. Using a step-by-step method, the author explains how to write a Parenting Plan in which the parents make the decisions, not the judge. It contains suggestions for monitoring children's use of social media, addressing the needs of non-traditional families, adopting child-inclusive provisions, and designing dispute resolution techniques Using a Celtic Tree, a symbol of love, strength, connection, and renewal, Ms McWilliams delivers a pragmatic and common-sense approach for dealing with the variety of issues that families encounter in divorce.

Table of Contents

A Letter to Parents	p. xvii
Introduction	p. xxi
What Is This Book About?	p. xxi
How Can We Avoid Hurting Our Children?	p. xxii
Why Write This Book Now? WhatÆs Changed?	p. xxvi
Can Anyone Use This Book?	p. xxx
Creating a Parenting Plan for Your Family	p. 1
Parenting Plan Q & A-Simple Questions/Simple Answers	p. 3
What Are the Basic Parts of a Parenting Plan?	p. 3
Can We Add Other Provisions to Our Parenting Plan?	p. 5
Do We Need to Write a Parenting Plan?	p. 7
When Should We Write a Parenting Plan?	p. 8
What Is the Best Time to Write a Parenting Plan?	p. 9
What Else Should We Know about the Law?	p. 10
Anything Else? Yes! Remember the Five "Cs"	p. 11
But What If ...?	p. 15
The Family Mission Statement-A Family Business Plan	p. 17
What Is a Family Mission Statement?	p. 17
Will It Help Our Children?	p. 18
How Do We Write a Family Mission Statement?	p. 20
Decision-Making-No Waffling Allowed	p. 23
What Is Decision-Making?	p. 23
Health Decisions	p. 24
Education Decisions	p. 26
Religious Decisions	p. 28
General Welfare Decisions	p. 30
Parenting Time (Visitation)-Making It Work for You and Your Children	p. 33
How Will Our Children Spend Time with Each of Their Parents?	p. 33
What Factors Should We Consider When Creating Our Parenting Time Schedule?	p. 34
How Should We Deal with Special Problems?	p. 36
How Do We Design a Parenting Time Schedule?	p. 41
Monthly Parenting Time Schedule	p. 42
Holiday Parenting Time Schedule	p. 43
Vacation parenting Time Schedule	p. 45
Clarifying Your Expectations	p. 45
Things that Are Guaranteed to Make You Crazy!	p. 49
Communication-Yes, You Still Have to Communicate	p. 53
Communicate with the Other Parent? Impossible!	p. 53
So-How Do We Do It?	p. 54
Are There Other Resources We Can Use?	p. 57
Technology-Get Online	p. 61
Why Should We Worry about Technology?	p. 61
Should We Include This Topic in Our Parenting Plan?	p. 62
What Are Some Guidelines that We Might Consider?	p. 63
Nontraditional and Special Needs Families-Practical Considerations	p. 67
Families with Special Needs Children	p. 68
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender ("GLBT") Parents	p. 70
Never Married Parents	p. 73
Multiracial/Multicultural Parents	p. 76
Non-Parents as Parents	p. 78
Finances-Sharing the Cost	p. 81
Things to Consider	p. 82
Things that Are Guaranteed to Make You Crazy!	p. 85
Change-It Happens	p. 89
What Happens If We Need to Change Our Plan?	p. 89
What Should We Anticipate?	p. 90
Disagreements-They Happen Too!	p. 93
Get Ready-Disputes Happen!	p. 93
What Are Some Peaceful Dispute Resolution Techniques?	p. 94
Listening to Your Children	p. 99
Child-Inclusive Parenting Plans-Are You Listening?	p. 101
What Is a Child-Inclusive Parenting Plan?	p. 101
Should Children's Ideas Always Be Included in the Parenting Plan?	p. 102
What Factors Should We Consider Before We Try to Include Our Children	p. 104
Is There More than One Way to Include Our Children in Our Plan?	p. 107
How Should We Prepare the Children to Participate in the Process?	p. 112
We're Still Not Sure ...	p. 114
Making Your Patenting Plan Work	p. 117
Guaranteeing Failure-Guaranteeing Success	p. 119
What Are the Worst Things that You Can Do to Your Children (and Guarantee Failure in the Process)?	p. 119
What Are the Best Things that You Can Do for Your Children (and Guarantee Success in the Process)?	p. 122
Divorce Etiquette	p. 129
Are There Rules We Can Follow that Will Make Our Lives Easier?	p. 129
Parting Thoughts	p. 137
The Truth from My Perspective	p. 137
Resources	p. 141
I Need Help!	p. 143
Where Should I Go?	p. 143
How about Other Resources?	p. 144
Children's Books	p. 144
Adult Books	p. 145
Online Resources	p. 146
Articles	p. 147
Acknowledgments	p. 149
About the Author	p. 151
quick Order Form	p. 153
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.