Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Cooperative Co-parenting: Parenting As A Team

Parenting is full of decisions you will have to make with your ex, whether you like each another or not. Cooperating and communicating makes decision-making easier on everyone. If you aim for consistency and teamwork with your ex, child-rearing decisions tend to fall into place. Here's how...


● Consistency: It’s healthy for children to be exposed to different perspectives and learn to be flexible, but they also need to know they are living under the same basic set of expectations at each home. Creating consistency between your home and your ex’s avoids confusion for your children.

● Rules: Rules don’t have to be exactly the same between both households, but if you and your ex can establish generally consistent guidelines, your children will not have to bounce back and forth between different disciplinary environments.

● Discipline. Try to follow similar consequences for broken rules, even if it did not happen in your home. So, if your children lost iPad privileges while at your ex’s home, follow through with the same restriction. This can also be done for rewarding good behavior.


● Schedule. Where you can, create consistency in your children’s schedules. Making meals, homework, and bedtimes similar can go a long way toward your child’s adjustment to having two homes.