Blended Family Essay
Come springtime, many blended families put off plans for their new garden and getting the pool ready for swimming season in order to put together their plans for summer child visitation/parenting plan. Managing to meet everyone’s expectations in a blended family situation looking forward to summer plans: classes, vacations, summer jobs, etc. can seem impossible. But there are those who take the time to make it work!
The most important thing to remember in this type of situation is to be fair. Generally speaking, kids need to spend time with both their mom and their dad. Don't force them to choose. That’s not fair to them – as they love you both. Consider visitation agreements that are already in place and attempt to encourage the child to visit the non-residence parent as much as possible (if one parent has substantially more of the parenting time than the other).
Avoid getting competitive at all costs. It is surprisingly tempting for many parents. In fact, they often don’t realize that they are doing it until it’s done. Spending the most money on summer activities does not prove that you …show more content…
Each family involved must make efforts to respect the other family in regards to schedule changes as they can have some rather disruptive (and potentially expensive) effects: cancelled reservations, missed flights, non-refundable deposits, missed team sports, etc.) Once there is a summer schedule in place, treat it with great respect. You may never have thought of it this way, but for many blended families, one small change can have a chain reaction that affects a number of families. For instance, if you and your ex are both remarried, they each have exes and their new spouses have exes, etc. Extending your summer vacation by a day or two could have a far more dramatic effect than you could ever have
The most important thing to remember in this type of situation is to be fair. Generally speaking, kids need to spend time with both their mom and their dad. Don't force them to choose. That’s not fair to them – as they love you both. Consider visitation agreements that are already in place and attempt to encourage the child to visit the non-residence parent as much as possible (if one parent has substantially more of the parenting time than the other).
Avoid getting competitive at all costs. It is surprisingly tempting for many parents. In fact, they often don’t realize that they are doing it until it’s done. Spending the most money on summer activities does not prove that you …show more content…
Each family involved must make efforts to respect the other family in regards to schedule changes as they can have some rather disruptive (and potentially expensive) effects: cancelled reservations, missed flights, non-refundable deposits, missed team sports, etc.) Once there is a summer schedule in place, treat it with great respect. You may never have thought of it this way, but for many blended families, one small change can have a chain reaction that affects a number of families. For instance, if you and your ex are both remarried, they each have exes and their new spouses have exes, etc. Extending your summer vacation by a day or two could have a far more dramatic effect than you could ever have