By: Jaclyn Zembrodt Taylor
October 8, 2019
Communication is the foundation to human connection and is the key to personal and professional success in life generally. Moreover, it is the key to successful co-parenting. The majority of issues that arise in cases involving custody matters involve disrespectful or lack of communication between parents. Just like in any human relationship or interaction, communication can make or break how the relationship or interaction affects the parties involved. Parents, whether divorced or never married, have a unique relationship in that they must co-parent their children. Co-parenting provides an additional level of complexity as there are ancillary parties to each of their interactions, their child or children, who are affected, often detrimentally, by their parents ability to communicate, or lack thereof. Co-parents who have their child’s best interest in mind will learn to communicate in a respectful and productive manner. However, sometimes additional tools are needed to facilitate this type of communication. Below are five great tools to aid with co-parenting.
1. Co-parenting Therapy
2. Parenting Classes
3. Google Calendar
4. The Child News Report
5. Co-parenting Applications
The upcoming blog posts will highlight each of these available tools. The use of these tools may require inconvenience or the dedication of time and/or resources, but the parties involved and affected by the co-parenting relationship will be better off for it. Not all of the above-mentioned solutions will work for everyone currently engaged in a co-parenting relationship. It is important that if you are struggling to respectfully and productively communicate with your co-parent, you find the tool that is right for you. Melissa Doss Law is happy to help further explain how each tool works and/or advise as to the appropriate tool for a specific co-parenting relationship.
1. Co-parenting Therapy
Co-parenting therapy utilizes a psychological expert to develop a co-parenting plan unique to the circumstances of the co-parenting relationship which has the ability to take into account particular circumstances or issues that particularly cause issues. Rules, limitations, and boundaries involving communication are part of this co-parenting plan and often serve as the root of interaction in each scenario in which both co-parents interact. Co-parenting therapy is a specialized psychological service that is provided by licensed individuals. The co-parents usually divide the cost of this service which is billed at the psychologist’s hourly rate. We highly recommend co-parenting therapy to assist in resolving co-parenting communication issues.
Photo credit: Dimitri de Vries on Unsplash
