Children of divorced co-parents in New Jersey already have a lot on their plate to deal with emotionally. Thus, parents must have a custody agreement that is intended to make it as easy as possible for the children. The common way of implementing 50-50 custody may not be the most advantageous way as far as the children are concerned.
One of the major problems with alternating weeks between the parents’ homes is that the children may end up feeling separation anxiety when they are faced with the prospect of being apart from a parent for an entire week. Seven days is a long time to be separated when the child has grown used to both parents being around all the time. Even worse, they could grow detached from one or both of the parents during this time.
There may also be a burden on the parents when it comes to executing the custody schedule. They need flexibility from their jobs to pick the children up and drop them off when necessary. That may not always be forthcoming from their employer. Furthermore, the two parents will need to communicate frequently during this time since the children will want to speak to the other parent during the week. That is not easy if the two parents have a poor relationship. What may work best for the children is a more frequent rotation.
A family law attorney might help devise a child custody schedule in which the parents could maintain the even custody split while moving the children between homes more often. This could help minimize the disruption in the children’s lives. This type of agreement may take some negotiation to bring about as one or both of the parents might not be fully able to embrace a different way of thinking at first. However, the benefits to the children should become apparent.