Parent Coordination

During the process of divorce, you may be struggling to redefine your relatiionship with your former spouse. It may be difficult to help your child to cope with the separation of the family. Your struggle may be magnified by anger, pain and frustration. These feelings can interfere in your ability to effectively co-parent. Parental conflict, over a long period of time is detrimental to your child’s healthy adjustment. Making a commitment to to remain child- focused, managing your anger, and having the ability to negotiate differences is essential in effective co-parenting.

Parent Coordination offers you and your co-parent an avenue to effectively learn to co-parent. At the Family Resource Center we offer a two-fold approach. We have a psycho-educational 6 week class that offers parents an opportunity to meet with other parents who are also in high conflict. The objective of the program is to help parents:

Identify your child’s issues associated with the divorce

Focus on you and your personal struggle to overcome the loss

Understand loyalty binds

Facilitate negotiation and conflict resolution skills

We know that Parenting Plans do not remain the same. We also know that Parenting Plans are not as specific as they need to be. Therefore, we have an Individual Parent Coordination Program that helps parents facilitate and micro- manage their parenting concerns. These issues can include visitation exchanges, inability to communicate, and an inability to negotiate solutions. Parent Coordinators are not evaluators. They help parents utilize their current schedule and adapt to the current goals for their children.
Common issues that the Parent Coordinator is typically authorized to address include the following:

*time sharing arrangments, including holiday and summer vacation

*daily routine

*daycare/babysitting

*transportation and exchange

*medical, dental and vision care

*psychological counseling, testing or other assessment for the children

*extracurricular activities and arrangements for the children

*discipline

Usually, the Parent Coordinator does not make recommendations to significantly change the existing court orders, such as modification of legal custody, and/or relocation of children.

Parent Coordination is an excellent resource for parents to help facilitate the development of their children. Each of our children are different and require different resources. Setting goals, being able to communicate throughout the process of our children’s life is critical. They have two parents. In high conflict cases, two parents who want to be involved. Their lives constantly change. Therefore, it is up to us as their parent to help them become the best they can be. We, as parents today, have no excuses. The resources are available. What are you willing to do? Parent Coordination can change your child’s life!