Coming up with a parenting plan for post-divorce

Currently, Florida law requires that the court prepare a Parenting Plan, which is a detailed time-sharing schedule. In this Parenting Plan, time-sharing is dealt with along with the division of holidays, extracurricular activities and travel issues. There are many different parenting plan forms floating around on the Internet for your review, and the Florida Supreme Court publishes several types of parenting plans on their website, as well.

Recently, when the legislature changed the nomenclature in Florida Chapter 61 eliminating primary residential parent and secondary residential parent, as well as the words “custody” and “visitation,” many did not foresee a major change in the attitude of the courts. However, the courts have slowly gravitated to a more equal time-sharing arrangement for most families. In other words, if you are serious about spending time with your children and you have the ability to be an appropriate caretaker, the court is going to see that you have close to equal time with the children.

As stated earlier, nobody can make a better time-sharing schedule than the parties themselves. Therefore, it is important that the parties work hard to try to craft a schedule which will meet their work hours and lifestyle.

Florida Statute 61.13 sets out the following factors that the court must consider in determining an appropriate time-sharing schedule.