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A key component of divorce or child custody cases is creating a visitation schedule that works for your family’s current and future needs. While many assume that family court judges will dictate the terms, the reality is that you and your co-parent have the flexibility to establish your own possession and access schedule. A Standard Possession Order in Texas provides a default framework, but parents have the option to customize the schedule to best meet the unique needs of their children. Open communication and collaboration with your co-parent are essential in creating a plan that promotes stability and well-being for your family.
Overcoming Divorce and Custody Challenges with Legal Support
The main limitations that people in your position tend to encounter in divorce cases, as well as child custody matters, relate to an inability or unwillingness to negotiate with one another as well as problems with creativity when it comes to thinking about creative and straightforward possession schedules. In this way, hiring an experienced family law attorney with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan can go a long way toward helping you and your family settle your case before a trial and create a workable schedule that maximizes your child’s time with both you and your Co-parent.
When it comes to creating a possession schedule for your children, a family court judge will look primarily to the best interests of your child. This means considering the specific needs of your child now, and in the future as well as a range of other considerations. Your family court judge will want to ensure that both you and your co-parent have meaningful opportunities to spend time with your child. This doesn’t necessarily entail splitting custody time directly down the middle. However, it does mean that the possession schedule must be fair and practical for both parents.
Creating a Custody Schedule for Unorthodox Work Schedules
If you are a parent who works on the weekends or has an otherwise unorthodox schedule for your employment, then this is probably an especially interesting topic for you. Importantly, you will need to pay special attention to the creation of a possession schedule that allows you to spend time with your child but also meet the responsibilities for your work. Sacrificing the relationship with your child or the ability to continue working is not ideal. However, you need to be wary of agreeing to things in mediation that would put you in a difficult spot as far as logistics and transportation are concerned.
Living in a major metropolitan area presents challenges, particularly concerning traffic, that need to be considered. Agreeing to a standard possession order where you will have to pick up your child from their mother’s house at 6:00 PM on Friday on the first, 3rd, and 5th weekends of each month could be a challenge for you if you happen to drive across town after work lets out to make that happen. This puts everyone involved, including your child, in a tricky situation. You may be able to avoid Situations like this merely by being more conscientious about how you negotiate what you are willing to agree to in mediation.
How to plan for the best type of weekend visitation after the Texas family law case
When it comes to planning on how to create a position in the access schedule that suits your family well, it is important to remember that several factors are worth considering on behalf of your family. The last thing you want to do is to breeze past the type of considerations that we are about to give, only to find that you failed to consider an important attribute of your parenting possession plan. As it typically happens, a small problem regarding a position plan now typically grows to be a much larger problem later on. My unscientific opinion is that issues like this do not become larger problems linearly but rather do so exponentially.
The first thing that I would consider when trying to come up with a workable possession and access schedule is to think about the specific needs of your children. This may seem obvious, but in many circumstances surrounding a divorce or child custody case people in your position will sometimes agree to possession schedules that do not suit their lives or their child’s life, either. Speeding up the case’s conclusion is the aim. While wanting to resolve a family law case swiftly is understandable, agreeing to terms solely for expediency’s sake isn’t advisable.
Considering Your Children’s Needs in Custody Mediation
You need to consider the age, activity level, and other circumstances of your children before agreeing to anything in mediation. For example, does your child have a specific health need that makes transportation more cumbersome for him or her? If applicable, considering a possession schedule that reduces car trips or transportation needs may be optimal. Conversely, if you have an older child involved in extracurricular activities… In that case, you may need to work your possession schedule around the needs of your children and any other circumstances related to their life outside of the home.
Assuming that it is in the best interest of your child, you and your Co-parents should do your best to be able to work out a possession schedule that allows for frequent contact between your children and both of you. Sometimes this can be easier said than done given work schedules and things of that nature. While many families want to be able to create possession schedules that allow for split custody, this isn’t always possible or even beneficial for your child. However, there are ways to divide custody that allow for a great degree of fairness in terms of dividing time between you and your Co-parent.
Understanding the Texas Standard Possession Order
The tried-and-true standard possession order in Texas does a pretty good job of allowing both parents to have meaningful opportunities to spend time with their children. Even if you’re designated as the possessory conservator and have visitation rights instead of primary custody, you’ll still have substantial time with your children. Essentially, a standard possession order entails more weekends and slightly more holiday time for you compared to your Co-parent, especially when considering summer holidays.
If both you and your co-parent have work schedules that allow for it, then you all may want to consider attempting to work out a position schedule that is close to a 50/50 split. This would allow for both of you to be able to maximize the time that you were able to spend with your children as well as share in parenting responsibilities. this is an especially attractive option for parents who can work well together as a team and coordinate their efforts without strife or argument regularly. While no possession schedule is perfect, they split possession schedule can create a circumstance where Parents can maximize the quality time that they can spend with their child.
Logistics, travel, and possession schedules in Texas
One of the most important factors associated with coming up with workable parenting plans in Texas relates to Work schedules and the commute between your home and that of your Co-parent. In many ways, these may be factors that did not immediately come to mind while you begin to negotiate a parenting plan. However, I think they are two of the most practical considerations apparent in your position as you begin to negotiate a workable parenting plan.
You don’t need me to tell you that we live in a big city that is very spread out. Where you decide to live after a family law case can directly impact the type of possession schedule that ends up being workable for you and your family. The closer that you live to your Co-parent, the more creative and flexible your possession schedule can be. Minimizing the amount of travel between your homes can allow for later or earlier drop-off and pick-up, easier coordination when schedules change at a moment’s notice as well as fewer logistical issues in transporting the kids back and forth between the homes.
Minimizing Travel for Children’s Well-being in Custody Arrangements
When considering the needs of your children, there is almost no situation in which longer travel time between your home and that of your Co-parent is better for the children. Spending significant time commuting between homes not only wastes valuable time but also stresses children who must endure long bus rides or frequent drop-offs at school and transportation between parents’ houses.
If you are able, you should consider your living situation as being the first place you should look towards when trying to figure out what type of position schedule can work best for your family. In the end, you may look at it and say that a possession schedule based on where you and your Co-parent live makes the most sense. One example that I can point to is parents creating geographic restrictions for the children to always reside in a certain zip code or even school district. This may be taking it a bit far considering the needs of your family, but every auction is on the table when it comes to making these parenting plans work.
Creating a Sensible Parenting Plan
Minimizing disruption for your children and stress for you and your co-parent are not always factors that are considered when it comes to negotiating a workable possession schedule with your co-parent. However, I think it is factors like these that go a long way towards helping families like yours transition into life after a family law case. While some disruptions may be avoidable to an extent, you can minimize those disruptions by creating a parenting plan that meets the needs of your family and is sensible in terms of logistics and transportation.
One of the major side effects of the pandemic has been a shift in how many people work. Work-at-home and hybrid work schedules are becoming more and more popular and accepted by employers. Even if employers were hesitant to normalize these schedules, workers have forced their hand, pushing employers to at least consider regular hybrid work, both in the office and at home. As a result, you may be in a different position than you were two years ago, being able to confidently say that you work from home and have a schedule that reflects this change.
Leveraging Work-from-Home Schedules in Custody Planning
This can do wonders for you and your children when it comes to the creation of a possession schedule and your family law case. This is even more true if your Co-parent also has a work-from-home schedule that allows for greater flexibility as far as when their day begins and ends. You and your Co-parent may even be able to create a possession schedule that allows for greater flexibility during the school week if both of you work from home. The options are limitless when there is a great degree of work-from-home availability for you and your Co-parent.
Another set of considerations that you may want to take note of when it comes to a possession schedule for your child is that the needs of your child will likely change over time as he or she gets older. This probably will not come as a surprise to you in many regards, but some folks going through family law cases do not consider the full extent of this issue when negotiating a possession schedule. I think that this is a major mistake. As such, you should think about what your child’s needs are at this moment, and what they are likely to be in the future.
Navigating Challenges in Long-Term Custody Planning
Admittedly, this is something that can and likely will be a challenge for you and your family. It is difficult enough to consider all these factors that have already been discussed in today’s blog post for the present time. It is a whole new challenge to have to consider what the likely needs of your family will be in the future. There is so much that can change for your family, not making grand assumptions about what the next 5 to 10 years will look like can seem almost like a waste of time.
However, you should at least begin to think about what the needs of your family are and how they can change in the future. For children, you may be in a position where your kids stand to benefit more from shorter and more regular periods of possession with both you and your Co-parent. When they are younger, transportation and simply moving the kids back and forth between their homes may be more of a challenge regularly than the two of you are willing to endure. As the father of four little kids myself, I know first-hand how difficult it can be to get little ones out the door.
Transitioning Custody Plans as Children Grow
With that in mind, maybe you and your Co-parent would want to create a schedule for your children that allows for extended time with both of you while they are younger. As the children grow older and it becomes easier to move back and forth between your homes, you can transition into a situation where the kids have shorter periods of possession with both of you. All of this works even better when the two of you live close to one another. The shorter the distance between the two of you, the more flexibility that is likely able to be endured.
Whatever you and your Co-parent ultimately agree on when it comes to a parenting schedule, one of the most important things you can do to ensure the viability of your plan is to make sure that both of you understand your responsibilities as it pertains to making the possession schedule work well for your children. You can keep copies of your possession schedule handy both in print and digital formats. This way you can clear up any misunderstandings should they arise.
It sounds rather simple, but you can create color-coded calendars that can be hung up in your home and kept on your computer. This way your children can also be able to look ahead and plan for the different changes that come about in the possession schedule.
Conclusion
In Texas, the standard possession order serves as a common framework for child custody arrangements, ensuring that both parents maintain a meaningful relationship with their children. While it offers a default schedule, parents have the opportunity to customize it based on their specific needs. Understanding the standard possession order is crucial, as it can guide co-parents in making informed decisions about visitation and possession schedules, helping to reduce conflicts and prioritize the children’s well-being. Collaborating on these arrangements allows families to create a plan that works best for everyone involved while ensuring compliance with the law.
Questions about the material contained in today’s blog post? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan
If you have any questions about the material contained in today’s blog post, please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys offer free-of-charge consultations six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. These consultations offer an excellent opportunity for you to gain insight into Texas family law and understand how your family’s circumstances might be affected by filing a divorce or child custody case.
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Other Articles you may be interested in:
- Coming up With Possession Schedules That Work for Your Family in Texas
- End of Summer Possession and Transitioning to School Year Possession Schedules
- Unique Goals for Your Child’s Possession Schedule? Read This Blog to Learn How to Achieve Those Goals
- Modifying Visitation Orders in Texas
- At What Age Can a Child Make A Custody Decision?
- Are Dads at a Disadvantage when trying to win 50/50 custody in a Texas Divorce?
- Sole Managing Conservator in a Child Custody Case in Texas?
- Help!! My Ex-Spouse Kidnapped my Child
- How Much Will My Texas Child Custody Case Cost?
- When Can a Minor Child Weigh in on Custody Decisions in Texas?”
- Child Custody Geographic Restrictions in Texas
- Can a Child be Forced to Visit a Parent?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The standard visitation order in Texas can vary, but it typically includes visitation on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th weekends of each month, alternating holidays, and extended summer visitation.
The standard visitation schedule in Texas often follows a weekend rotation and includes provisions for holidays and extended summer visitation. It’s essential to review your specific court order for precise details.
The expanded visitation schedule provides additional visitation time for non-custodial parents, typically including more weekends and extended hours during the week. This schedule may be agreed upon or ordered by the court.
Infants may have different visitation schedules to accommodate their needs, often involving shorter, more frequent visits. The court may consider the child’s age and developmental stage when determining the schedule.
Child custody schedules in Texas can vary widely depending on the specific circumstances of the case. The possession schedules may adhere to standard patterns or be customized to accommodate the specific needs of the child and parents. It’s essential to consult with an attorney for guidance.
As of my last knowledge update in September 2021, there were no significant new visitation laws in Texas. However, laws can change, so it’s advisable to consult with a legal professional or check the latest legal updates for any changes.
The most common visitation schedule often involves weekends, alternating holidays, and extended summer visitation. However, “common” can vary depending on individual circumstances and agreements.
Shared custody arrangements (joint managing conservatorship) are common in Texas, allowing both parents to have a say in important decisions. However, specific custody arrangements can vary based on the child’s best interests and parental agreements.
The court in Texas may still require child support payments in 50/50 custody arrangements, depending on the parents’ incomes and the child’s needs. The determination is based on a formula and the court’s discretion.
