In New Jersey, the summer brings a lot of changes to the schedule for parents. That is especially true for parents who are divorced and have a shared custody system, and they need to ensure they are up to date on their summer plan.
Custody in the summer
In the school year, the fact that school and work share days makes for logical divisions of custody time, whether that be alternating weeks or a system with weekends and weekdays. However, in the summer that all changes. With the kid or kids no longer in school, the schedule should change to reflect that. With so man holidays and vacations in the summer, plus the greater availability for the child in terms of time, it is important to come up with a fair and balanced system that keeps the relationships as healthy and functional as possible.
This is not always easy, and some couples are tempted to use the schedule as a weapon or a way to get an edge against their ex. That will lead to fights as well as the waste of precious time that could be spent on building relationships with the children. Consider different ways of dividing custody that take advantage of time off work, planned trips, and other moments. The better the couple can work together and avoid competing for time, the smoother the summer will go.
There is no one size fits all solution to summer custody scheduling, but communication and cooperation will go much farther than trying to make custody a point of contention, which will lead to disruption and problems with timing.