Child Visitation - 7 Strategies to Improve Your Visitation Timeshare

When parents break up the most hurtful change is child visitation, not being able to see your children on a daily basis. While the quality of spending time together may improve due to the parents splitting, the quantity of time may go seriously downhill.

If you are the parent who moves out of the home the family has lived in, whether voluntary or forced, you have a distinct disadvantage when it comes to establishing a timeshare schedule. But there are strategies and actions you can take to help level the playing field. These strategies are best if implemented before you leave. But even if you have been through mediation and agreed to a visitation schedule, they will work for you. Here are the 100 strategies to improve your child visitation timeshare:

One of the most important factors that gets weighed in a child visitation schedule is the “established pattern”. It is critical to establish a pattern as early as possible. If you can work out a 50/50 schedule before moving out, then your chances of keeping that pattern going after you move out are much better. If you don’t have a legal arrangement you can change it at will (it may not go over well with the ex, but you have to do right by your child)
Another factor looked at is the housing situation. If you can possibly get into a house that provides a suitable, and similar, living arrangement for your child then you can show that you are equal to the task. It doesn’t need to be fancy and you don’t need to own it, but it should be clean.
Where you live can be very critical not just to getting generous child visitation now, but keeping or increasing it later. If possible get housing in the same school district. This may make your ex angry, but the courts will love it. The routine can be the same. If you are within the same distance of the school as the ex, there is little reason why you shouldn’t be allowed to pick your child up or drop them off at school.
New girlfriends or boyfriends can be detrimental to custody especially if you are early on in the process. If you want to date, do it when the children are with the other parent. Everyone will be happier if there is a long cool off period. Don’t introduce anyone to your child for at least 6 months after living on your own. Even then, make sure this is the one you are moving forward with and into a permanent relationship. You can easily explain to the court that you dated for many months before introducing them to your child. This seems much more responsible than parading people through like a meat market (more than one is a meat market).
Socializing with your children is a good thing. Make sure you get to take your child to their friends birthday parties, to school functions, religious and family events. Making sure your child experiences a rich diversity of experiences with you is vital. The court needs to see that the child would miss out on these experiences if generous child visitation was not granted.
Volunteer at your child's school. Everyone is busy. If generous child visitation is important to you then get involved. Serve on a committee, help the PTA, volunteer for fund raisers, be seen. One of the best weapons you will have is the thank you notes from these activities.
Building bonds with your child is not only extremely rewarding, it also shows the court how important your child is in your life. Here is how you can quantify it for the court. Bonds are built through repetitive actions so you need to identify those actions. Reading bedtime stories every night, visiting grandmas for dinner every Sunday, eating dinner at the table every night, fixing the favorite family meal on the same night every week. The keyword here is “every”.