Trying to make your child custody arrangements work after you go through a divorce can be challenging. You have to figure out which arrangements will work best for your family and how they will impact your children. One attribute that must be present when co-parenting your child is patience. There are going to be some frustrating times ahead as you adjust to parenting your child across two homes.
Having a healthy environment in which the children can thrive should be the shared goal of co-parenting. Before you embark upon a situation, you have to think about how your ex is likely going to react to it. If the person was manipulative during your marriage, that might continue in the co-parenting relationship. Shoring yourself up to this possibility can help you have patience when they start to push your buttons.
One thing that people sometimes do in co-parenting relationships is to try to get a reaction out of their co-parent. When you exercise patience, you can refrain from engaging in these unhealthy patterns. This might help to diffuse a potentially volatile situation.
When you are patient during those frustrating times, you send a message to your children about appropriate behavior. There might be times when anger is warranted, but being patient will enable you to carefully plan your response so that you don’t fly off the handle.
Conflicts are bound to occur when you are in a co-parenting relationship. Having a conflict resolution plan in your parenting plan gives you a good starting point for handling the matter in a productive manner. This can reduce your stress and encourage your co-parenting relationship to move forward in a positively.
