Gear up for a low-stress, post-divorce holiday season

It’s no secret that divorce usually means that there were unresolved differences of some type between spouses. Your situation is unique to your own set of circumstances. It’s also no secret that some divorce situations are highly contentious while others are more amicable. You may even find that cross through both categories at some point as you move forward in life.

If this is going to be your first holiday season since you settled your divorce, you may be a bit worried about your children and how everyone will get along or whether some legal issue might impede your holiday joy. You can take several actions ahead of time to make your post-divorce holiday time as non-stressful as possible.

Lay the groundwork for a low-stress holiday season

You might say that “live and learn” definitely applies to divorce, especially if you are a parent. You and your ex might try certain things, and then find that another holiday option might better fit your family’s needs. You can customize your own plan and the following ideas might help: 

• Review your co-parenting plan: You and your ex hopefully wrote out thorough and clear terms regarding your child custody plan. If you did not include schedules for your children’s holidays, you may want to revise/update your plan, which the judge would have to approve.
• Communication can make or break stress levels: If you and your ex are always arguing about your kids, you may be more prone to a high-stress holiday season. However, if you try to focus on clearly communicating your needs and understanding what the other parent is saying, it leaves less room for confusion and holiday schedule complications.
• Keep priorities in mind: Like most Ohio parents, you likely keep your children’s best interests at the top of your priority list. Cooperation and compromise go a long way to helping divorced families have low-stress holidays.

You may be willing to do all these things and more to help your kids have a nice holiday season. However, if your spouse is not so willing or, worse, is doing something to impede your parent/child relationship or to undermine your parental rights, it’s a sure-fire recipe for stress, which is why it is important to know where to seek immediate family law support.