Kids Going Back-to-School and Divorce, When You Get One Shot at Raising Your Children
The stakes are high when you are raising children to be well-educated and successful and this back-to-school and divorce podcast focuses on these challenges. The requirements to get into good schools are extensive and the competition is strong. Children under more pressure than every before can get swept away by school stress alone. When you factor in a divorce or family law matter, even the most well-adjusted kids can have problems in school and socially. Mark L. Scroggins talks about back-to-school and divorce in this month?s Scroggins Law Group Podcast.
Divorce and Family Law Issues When Kids go Back-to-School
- Filing for new divorce cases when the kids go back to school
- Parents can focus on a divorce when children are in school
- Reasons people choose to divorce as children grow older
- Transitioning to new schools and co-parenting issues
- Starting a new middle school or high school
- What happens when the new school doesn’t fit
- Disciplinary issues and when children test boundaries
- Parents and co-parents being called in for a conference
- Child behavior can be a symptom of greater problems
- Blending families with new relationships and marriages
- Sports and extracurriculars can lead to bonding
- How both parents and new parties can be involved
Central themes in today’s podcast about kids, school and divorce and family law:
Amount of Parenting Time
How much time do you spend with your kids? What about each kid, individually? What matters is spending quality time with children, so they intrinsically feel like a priority in your life. Having kids around and actively parenting can mean two different things to people. Many of us raised in the 80s spent lots of time watching TV, riding bikes and roaming around malls, and when we got home we ate dinner and vacated to a recreation room to play video games. Today, more parents are spending more quality time with their kids instead of raising them with on TV and video games.
In sum, Mark points out that the quality of relationships among parents and children is often a function of the amount of quality parenting time.
Note that one of the most important things to remember when spending time with your child, do not talk negatively about the other parent. When you do that, you are insulting your child who is half their other parent.
Maintaining Marriages
Just like parent-child relationships need attention and maintenance, so do marriages. The key for parents trying to raise kids and maintain a marriage is to learn how to balance time and energy. Too often the people trying to be the best parents end up being the worst spouses. When all your time, energy and focus is spent on your kid getting into the right school and having the best social, educational and development opportunities, you could wake up one day and realize you and your spouse are more like roommates sharing the bills.
Back-to-School time can mean more mommy and daddy time. When parents are engaged with one another and live with passion, they are more likely to be positive role models for their children. Kids respond well to their parents being happy.
Educational vs. Medical Concerns
Back-to-school and divorce issues can include parents? different opinions about the crossover of their child?s educational and medical needs. Consider the school telling one parent that their child shows behavior tendencies causing concern for Attention Deficit Disorder, for example. Not everyone is on the same page when it comes to prescribing ADD medication to young children. This can lead to conflict and at times parents go back to court when they cannot resolve mixed educational and medical decisions.
Vaccinations are another cause for disagreement. The number of vaccinations offered for children today greatly exceeds those most parents received when they were young. Some parents disagree with some or the majority of vaccinations and this can lead to problems among co-parents and schools.
At Scroggins Law Group in Plano, Mark L. Scroggins and his team of talented trial attorneys, paralegals and support staff can help you understand your rights and options when you need to file for a new divorce, file a modification case or otherwise address custody issues. Call Scroggins Law Group in Plano at (469) 626-5220.
