Terri Ramsey Beavers If you have recently split from your partner, you may have decided you want both parents to remain in their lives. This means that you want to co-parent any children that you have together. However, co-parenting can be extremely difficult in some circumstances, especially if you struggle to get on as individuals. To prevent your children from getting in the middle of the conflict between you, here are some top tips to make co-parenting work successfully when you struggle to see eye-to-eye.
1. Get Support
If both you and your ex-partner are at breaking point and you feel as if you cannot co-parent amicably anymore, you should consider getting support from an external source. There are many support services out there that can help co-parents and the kids within their care to thrive. These can offer you tailored advice and solutions that may be able to work for you. For instance, you might be able to attend co-parenting classes or go to counseling sessions that can help you move on from your issues, work through your problems, and work better as a parenting team. If you believe that you need extra support with co-parenting, you should look at Two Healthy Homes – Co Parenting Advice to see if this could work for you.
2. Isolate Your Issues
Although you might have issues as individuals and as exes, it is important that you do not allow these to get in the way of your parenting. Not only can these cause your children distress, but you might find that you are unable to parent to the best of your ability while being constantly at loggerheads with your former partner. Instead of letting these problems take over your life, you should try to isolate these issues and separate them from your life with your children. You should also make sure that you do not confront these sticking points when your children are around. This can help you to create a happier and healthier environment for your kids to grow up in.
3. Create a Plan
Rather than seeing how your co-parenting goes, if you are struggling to see eye to eye, you should sit down and create a plan for how your co-parenting is going to work. For instance, you should write down the days that you are going to be looking after your children and what each parent will manage. You should also state any boundaries that you have, as this can prevent difficulties from forming later. By doing this, you will be able to stop any mix-ups from happening, and you will be able to refer back to the plan to avoid frustrations and frequent confrontations.
If you are unable to see eye to eye with the person that you are co-parenting with, it is vital that you take steps to mitigate the effect that your relationship is having on your kids and their childhood, even if this means swallowing your pride and getting external support from services that have been specially created to help those in a similar situation to you.