When parents in New Jersey imagine custody arrangements, they often assume that the custody schedule must be regular. Shiftwork, however, can complicate this. A traditional plan might not work. Parent-child time is crucial to a child’s development. Everyone needs to remember this when creating a custody and visitation plan during a divorce.
Rearranging your work schedule
When your shifts are unpredictable, you may want to change that irregularity by requesting a regular schedule. If you can’t choose a predictable work schedule, you will have to figure out a custom schedule. A lawyer with experience in family law and child custody cases might be able to provide guidance.
Types of schedules
No matter the nature of your work schedule, there are ways to handle it. While hashing out the details, make sure to prioritize health concerns like sleep schedules and mental wellness. For parents who communicate well, both parties can adjust agreed-upon schedules as new information or changes in shifts come up. Such plans might change from week to week.
Other parents might agree upon how much time the children will have with each parent without committing to specific dates ahead of time. In this case, there are many ways of allocating time. For instance, maybe each parent will have a turn choosing his or her favored dates from month to month.
Older children are sometimes emotionally equipped to handle long stretches of time with one parent or the other. If one parent has seasonal work, children could spend weeks or months with that parent when possible. In these cases, parenting time might even out over the course of a year despite seeming unbalanced in the short term.
Those are only a few scheduling ideas. Countless parents before you have found good solutions to complicated work schedules. If you are struggling to set up your custody agreement or family scheduling, an attorney may be able to help.
