One of the most difficult aspects of divorce is addressing matters involving the children. For instance, how will child custody and parenting time be handled? Unfortunately, many divorcing parents in Illinois make the mistake of fighting too vigorously to split parenting time 50/50. Let’s take a look at why this can be problematic — and what the better approach may be.
As a general rule of thumb, many parents who are going through divorce assume that being equal parents with their exes requires them to have parenting time schedules that are exactly 50/50. However, this can be hard to accomplish. The reason for this is that parenting time takes on different forms in different situations.
For instance, perhaps a parent has parenting time five days a week — Monday through Friday. Even though the children will be with the parent the majority of the week, they will likely spend time with the parent only in the evenings, when the children are out of school. Meanwhile, let’s say that the other parent has parenting time on the weekends only. His or her parenting time will span just two days a week versus five days, but the parent may still have more time to spend with the children because they are out of school.
In light of the above, it makes sense for divorcing parents not to get too hung up on splitting parenting time 50/50 and to focus more on maximizing the moments they have with their children. Still, it is important that they not agree to schedules where they end up receiving significantly smaller amounts of parenting time. A family law attorney in Illinois can help a divorcing parent to pursue a fair parenting time agreement with the other party, keeping both the client’s and the children’s best interests at the heart of the matter.
