Parenting Arrangement on Special Occasions

Working out what arrangements should be included in Orders and the Court finds acceptable for your children can be confusing.

The process of establishing parenting arrangements after divorce and separation should involve a focus on what is best for the child and on allowing a child to maintain strong relationships with both parents. Generally, there is understanding that arrangements for special occasions should be reciprocal (children spend the same amount of time with both of you) should it be reasonably practical and in the best interests of your children.

The best interests of the child are the primary concern of the court when the court must determine how a child will split time with parents on special occasions. The court wants all decisions on custody, including where holidays are spent, to result in an outcome which allows a child to best maintain strong family ties and to have a stable home life.

Time with my Children in light of Christmas
If you and the other parent would ordinarily celebrate the occasion, and there are other family obligations involved, the Court will often Order you to share the occasions (with arrangements alternating each year). For example, over Christmas, you may spend time with the children from 3:00pm Christmas Eve to 3:00pm Christmas Day and the other parent may have your children from 3:00pm Christmas Day to 3:00pm Boxing Day.

You would swap the following year, allowing both of you to experience Christmas morning with your children each alternate year, and to organise family obligations so they can spend time with each of you, and your extended families, on that occasion. If parents celebrate on different days or there are long-established family traditions that one parent takes part in, the court may make appropriate arrangements whenever it is practical to allow the child to continue participating in these traditional family activities. When sharing holidays is not practical, the court may also order alternating special occasions. For example, a child may spend Christmas with one parent and Easter with the other on one year, and then the schedule would be reversed for the following year.

I have seen several matters where parents celebrate various special occasions on different days. In these circumstances, the Court may make specific arrangements for the children to spend those set periods of time with each of the parents, and for any other time to be shared.

When a schedule is established for how holidays should be split, it must also address what happens if holidays conflict. For example, a parent’s birthday could fall on a major holiday or on mother’s day or father’s day. When conflicts are anticipated in advance, the court can address them. As one possibility, the court may order the child spend father’s day with his or her father, except when the other parent’s birthday also happens to fall on father’s day.

If you would like to find out more about parenting arrangements or your rights and options, Straits Lawyers are here to help. Simply send us an email at info@straitslawyers.com or give us a call on 8410 9069 to arrange an appointment for an interview.

Please note that this article does not constitute legal advice and Straits Lawyers will not be legally responsible for any actions you take based on this article.