About Effective Parenting Agreements

        Most divorcing parents negotiate a custody agreement and a legal agreement documenting which parent does what, when, and how, for their dependent kids. The documents usually specify agreements about child visitations, holidays, education, child support, health care, insurance, and related topics. Parenting agreements range from consistently useful to major sources of ongoing conflict in and between co-parenting homes. Few such agreements anticipate the values, needs, and roles of any future stepparent/s.

        Reliance on these legal agreements testifies to ex mates' inability to communicate and problem-solve effectively as co-parenting teammates. Cre-ating an agreement without mutual commitment to reduce these nine com-mon co-parenting barriers promotes ongoing future strife. Most family-law at-torneys, domestic-court judges, professional mediators, clergy, and family therapists are unaware of these barriers and what to do about them - so their well-meant advice is often ineffective or harmful.

        Once co-parents become clear on their mix of barriers, they can commit to reducing each of them, and negotiating a truly effective parenting agree-ment - including the roles and responsibilities of current or future stepparents. self-improvement Lesson 7 and its guidebooks offer practical options for evolving co-parental teamwork after divorce and later re/marriage.     More detail