Scheduling Holidays During Divorce

It can be incredibly scary to think about what the holidays might look like after separation or divorce. You want the kids to still have a great time and you want to be a part of that, of course. But how do you do that if you and your spouse aren’t going to be together anymore?

While this is a tough question, it’s not impossible. You have options! There are several ways to create a holiday plan that keeps things smooth for the kids and gives you and your coparent balanced time with them.

Many coparents opt for an alternating calendar. This is when one parent has the holiday during even years and the other parent has the holiday during odd years.

Another way to plan for a holiday is to split the day. The children are with one parent for part of the day and with the other parent for another part of the day. This works well if everyone is geographically close to each other so you don’t waste time on the highway. This plan does not work if you want to travel for your holiday.

With either option, I recommend you get specific on exactly what time the holiday begins and ends. This way everyone can make plans that don’t conflict.

Sometimes, people think they will continue to celebrate holidays all together after they’re divorced. And there is small group of folks out there who can do this peacefully. Kudos to y’all! But most coparents can’t make this work so you probably don’t want that in your court order.

This is a hard one. Facing a holiday without your children is painful, especially that first year. But it is figure out-able and it will become less painful over time.

If you’re stuck on this, mediation can help. We go over all the options to find a good fit for you. We get into the details to make sure the plan is crystal clear with no gaps. Give me a call so we can start figuring it out.

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