Creating Your Holiday Schedule for You and Your Children in Las Vegas Family Court
Each of the family court judges in Las Vegas has his or her own standard holiday schedules to give to parents who cannot create a schedule for themselves. When parents make their own schedule, however, family court judges will honor the choice and make it the order of the court.
Quite often when asked what custody schedule they would like to have for holidays, clients respond: Just divide them equally. Clients who have this attitude may prevent themselves from maximizing their holiday time and enjoyment with their children.
Parents with cases in family court in Las Vegas always have the option of attending mediation at the Family Mediation Center to create a schedule. Alternatively, parents who want to create a schedule themselves without utilizing the Family Mediation Center may do, but they should keep a few things in mind. A good place to start for creating a schedule is to obtain the school district holiday calendar. This calendar lists all holidays that parents may want to consider. While some parents only care about the big holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, some parents choose to divide every holiday, including the three-day weekends which are great for traveling and holidays like the Fourth of July which only last one day.
The school district calendar is also helpful to remind you that a holiday is not always just the day of the holiday. For instance, when you divide Christmas, you may want to divide the two weeks off for school, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day or just Christmas Day? If you decide just to divide Christmas Day, are you going to alternate the whole day or will you divide it in half?
Another possible consideration is other children in the family. If you have another child from another relationship, it will likely be important for you to ensure that you are together with the children for all of the holidays.
Also, consider non-traditional holidays. If you and the children enjoy getting up early and shopping on “Black Friday,” make sure to include that in the schedule.
Remember, your children will not be little forever. Make sure to consider how this schedule will work in a few years when your toddler is a teenager. Of course, you and your co-parent may agree to any changes you would like in the future, but this agreement will be the bottom line for you if you cannot agree to change it.