Making Your Florida Holiday Time-Sharing Plan Work
While the holidays are often a great time of year for reconnecting with family members and celebrating traditions, they can become contentious when two parents are separated or divorced. Fortunately, if parents work together and structure their parenting plans properly, they can stop these issues from ruining the holidays.
Planning for the Holidays
There are a lot of holidays throughout the year, so parents will need to go through these dates and decide how they will divide parenting time. This includes, but isn’t limited to school holidays, like Spring break, Summer break, and Winter vacation, but also official holidays such as:
- Easter;
- Mother’s Day;
- Memorial Day;
- Father’s Day;
- Labor Day;
- Halloween;
- Thanksgiving; and
- Christmas.
The biggest issues often arise over major holidays, like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthdays. Fortunately, parents can plan for these holidays, deciding when a child will spend the day with each parent every year.
There is a 50/50 Time-Sharing Presumption in Florida
In Florida, there is a general presumption that parents should split time with their child on a 50/50 basis. There is, however, no statutory rule that dictates how two parents must format their holiday time-sharing schedule. Some of the most common methods of splitting time evenly include:
- Alternating holidays, with each parent spending the entirety of a holiday with their child on alternating years;
- Splitting the holidays, with each parent receiving custody of a child for part of the holiday;
- Celebrating the holiday twice, with one parent getting to celebrate the holiday a few days before or after the official holiday; and
- Assigning fixed holidays, with one parent having custody of the child for a certain holiday (perhaps for religious reasons), while the other parent gets custody on a different major holiday.
There are benefits to each of these arrangements. The alternating holiday plan, for instance, is relatively simple and doesn’t require that a child spend a holiday being shuffled back and forth between homes. The drawback, however, is that every other year, one of the parents misses out on spending the holiday with their child. Similarly, splitting the holiday can give a child the opportunity to see both parents, but can be stressful if a lot of transportation and moving parts are involved. For help coming up with a holiday time-sharing arrangement that is in your own family’s best interests, please reach out to our legal team today.
Let Us Help With Your Holiday Time-Sharing Schedule
Coming up with a time-sharing arrangement during the holidays can be complicated. Fortunately, you don’t have to come up with a solution on your own, but could benefit from the help of an experienced child custody lawyer. If you and your spouse need assistance in drafting your parenting plan or time-sharing schedule, don’t hesitate to call dedicated and compassionate Florida child visitation and time-sharing lawyer Sandra Bonfiglio, P.A. for help. You can set up a free consultation by calling our office at 954-945-7591 or by completing one of our online contact forms.
Sources:
leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0000-0099/0061/Sections/0061.13.html
forbes.com/sites/frawleypollock/2019/12/17/co-parenting-tips-for-the-holidays/
