As you navigate through the
divorce process with your Houston family law attorney, you will be asked to submit
a parenting plan. In that plan, you should include your plan for splitting
the holidays between parents. While you can both design separate plans
and then have a judge decide on what is best for your children and your
family, we at Law Office of Kathryn Marteeny suggest you and the other
parent work together to provide your children with the most the cohesive
holiday schedule. Below we have included some ways other parents choose
to organize their holiday visitations.
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Split the holiday: If you and your co-parent live close together, splitting the holiday could
work. Maybe your kids spend the morning with one parent and then the evening
with the other. If you choose to split the holiday, make sure that your
children are spending more time celebrating that holiday than they are
in the car. Too much travel time can be exhausting for kids.
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Switch off holidays: Another way you can split the holidays is to have one parent take even
years and the other parent take odd years. This way, no parent has to
go more than one year without celebrating the holidays with his or her kids.
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Reschedule the dates: If it’s not your year to have the kids on Thanksgiving or Christmas,
consider rescheduling. You don’t have to have Thanksgiving on the
calendar date, you can celebrate the next weekend when it’s your
turn to have the kids.
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Assign fixed holidays: Maybe one parent loves Easter weekend while the other loves Halloween.
You can assign fixed holidays for each parent.
Remember, you can always do what is best for your family. The needs of
your children change, and your lives may drastically change over the next
few years while you are settling into your divorce. You don’t have
to stick to one way of splitting the holidays, you can mix and match to
achieve a family holiday
visitation plan that works best for both parents and your children.
If circumstances have changed since your child custody orders were determined
and you need to file for a modification, our
Houston child custody lawyer can help you get started.
Call today to schedule your meeting.