What Agreements Should a Parenting Plan Contain?

 Posted on January 21, 2025 in Family Law

Creating a parenting plan for your children can be emotionally trying. If you are working with your co-parent to establish a parenting plan by agreement, you will need to make compromises. Your parenting plan will need to address your parenting time schedule, first and foremost. You will need to determine when your child will spend time with each parent. You will also need to address your parental responsibilities in your parenting plan. In Illinois, the term "parental responsibilities" refers to parents’ duty to make important decisions about their children’s upbringing. Your parenting plan is your rule book for co-parenting. A well-crafted parenting plan can set you up for smooth and cooperative co-parenting. You should be represented by an experienced Glen Ellyn, IL child custody lawyer while you are creating your parenting plan.

Planning a Visitation Schedule to Include Flexibility 

Parents who are getting divorced are usually very focused on the parenting time issue. The time you will be able to spend with your child is likely your top priority. When you and your spouse have a basic visitation schedule you are ready to agree on, it is important to take the extra step to plan for contingencies. Try to anticipate the types of disruptions to your schedule you will likely experience and discuss what you will do when things come up and one of you cannot use his or her normally scheduled parenting time.

This might include agreements about how missed parenting time can be made up, whether the weekly schedule might change sometimes when one of you is traveling for work, and who you would allow to babysit your children in the event neither parent is available. Many parents also include a right of first refusal clause, meaning that a parent must offer time with the children to the other parent before using a sitter.

Deciding Which Parent Makes Decisions 

Parents who are getting divorced may have significant disagreements about how to raise a child. If you disagree on major issues like what kind of school the child should go to, whether the child should be raised in your religion, or what kind of mental health care is appropriate for your child, it is especially important for your parenting plan to clarify how these decisions will be made. Normally, both parents keep some legal decision-making responsibility - for example, both parents usually retain the right to sign things like school permission slips or basic medical consent forms.

Contact a Glen Ellyn, IL Child Custody Attorney

NN Legal Group is committed to helping parents create strong and thorough parenting plans that will serve as their co-parenting guides in the years to come. Our dedicated DuPage County, IL child custody lawyers will help you negotiate with your co-parent to create the right parenting time schedule and allocation of decision-making responsibilities. Contact us at 630-474-0925 for a complimentary consultation.