Strengthening and Supporting Families
Positive co-parenting for your children will benefit them but also assist you when making future decisions and arrangements for your children.
Key things to remember include:
- Always put your children first
- Be considerate of the other parent’s opinions
- Behave respectfully towards each other
- Make sure you communicate
- Protect your children from disagreements
You may have decided that you and your former partner can no longer live together and have separated but this does not mean that you stop being your children’s parents and as such, need to make decisions for them.
You will still need to have a means of communicating with each other. Perhaps you could think of it as a business-like relationship. This may be difficult but the ability to work together for your children will enable arrangements to be made. What your children need is for you to work together to try to come to an agreement about matters that concern them. You might also want to think about how you involve your children in those decisions.
Making plans for your children with your former partner can be assisted by various practical parenting tools.
The Cafcass website has lots of fantastic resources for separated parents. Cafcass have also created a parenting planyou might find very useful. It will help you think about the kinds of things you need to remember to discuss.
There are lots of tools available to help you to make arrangements for your children and to have conversations about them in the best way. There are also resources available nationally and regionally.
In addition, parenting apps can also assist with communication particularly if you do not feel able to speak directly to your former partner about all or particular matters.
Information and resources for parents | Cafcass