Divorced parents, Scott Disick and Kourtney Kardashian, have three young children together. Disick was recently seen taking all three of his children out for seafood and frozen yogurt while Kourtney was jet-setting in France. The weekend prior, Disick was in Miami with his new girlfriend, while Kourtney cared for all three kids. TMZ Reports that, “the exes are co-parenting like a charm”.
What is co-parenting?
Post-separation co-parenting is a term used to describe a situation where two parents work together to raise a child even though they are divorced, separated, or no longer together. In this situation, the child’s parents seek to maintain equal time with their child.
It is a common misconception that “custody” refers to the time a parent spends with their child. Legally, custody of a child refers to how major decisions (i.e., healthcare and medicine, education, religion, and mobility) are made for the child and by whom.
“Access” is the term that dictates how much time a child spends in each parent’s physical care.
In a shared parenting arrangement, the child resides with each parent no less than 40% of the time. There are two common shared parenting regimes, they are as follows:
- Each parent has parenting time with his/her child on a week about basis. That is, the child resides with one parent one week and the other parent the next.
- The child resides with each parent on alternating weekends and weekdays are divided equally between the parents.
One key benefit to shared-parenting is that it allows both parents to spend relatively equal time with their child and in turn, allows the child to maximize his/her time with each parent.
Shared parenting can be successfully implemented in situations where both parents are able to respectfully and effectively communicate with each other and where both parents agree to all terms and conditions relating to the access schedule.