How to Prepare for a Family Law Mediation About Parenting скачать в хорошем качестве

How to Prepare for a Family Law Mediation About Parenting

Preparing for mediation doesn't have to be a big task, super scary, and something that you need to put off. Let's start with parenting. Write a list of what you want to talk about If you're going to a mediation to talk about your kids, you're going to talk about: Where they're going to live, How much time they'll spend with each of you, What school they'll go to, Whether they'll have a passport, Maybe even their religion. Maybe there's some people that you know they shouldn't be around that needs to be discussed. Write a list. Write a list of all of the things that you would like to discuss. That doesn't mean that because you've written a list, you're going to get to chat about all of the things, or it's not going to cross over in some other area. But write a list. Know your child's routine My tip for parents is to know your kids routine and really think about their routine and how that will be impacted now you've separated. So, for example, when you were together two days a week they went to after school care, and the other three days a week after they finished school they were picked up by a grandparent. What's going to happen now? What is their after school routine going to look like? Now you need that, not only for the mediation, but to communicate that to your child, because in their mind, they are going through a really big change, and sometimes it can be overwhelming. So what will that look like? What's your suggestion for what that will look like going forward? So there's dropping off and picking up from school, there is taking your children to sport training and the games. What days are training at the moment? What days are games? What are the likely times that they will play? Or if it's a regular activity, such as a music lesson or dancing or an art class, what is the routine right now? What is the routine and who's going to be taking the child to and from those places? With the children's schools, are going to be able to stay at the same school now that you're separated. Is that routine still realistic? What needs to change? Because the reality is, parents, you are now going to have to run two houses, not just one. So financially, that is completely different. That's what you could do as one household with two incomes to now going to two houses with each household having one income? Can they stay at the same school? Can they keep up the level of after school activities? These are all things that you're going to have to think about carefully when you're going to a mediation. You're going to have these hard discussions with each other about what is realistic and what is not realistic, now that you've separated. Sometimes kids go to therapy. It could be speech therapy, OT, psychologist, play therapy, all sorts of things that kids do. So what days do they go? What does it cost? Do you have private health insurance? Who pays for that? Are they going to keep paying for it? Who's going to cover any out of pocket expenses as you go through each visit with the therapists? Is there an NDIS plan for any of your children and if so, who manages it, who makes the appointments and arranges the reviews and updates the plan? All of those things you need to know, because they're all relevant to when you're going to be discussing where children will live, how much time they will spend with each of you, and what the world looks like for the kids going forward. That's, you know, the real question, isn't it? That's what they're interested in. What's the world going to look like for me as a child? Safety considerations Are there safety concerns? Is there drug or alcohol problems that need to be addressed? Does someone have an issue that is means that their children are not safe unless there's someone else present, and we see that quite a lot unfortunately. Because sometimes it takes a big thing, like a separation, for someone to realise that there's an issue and to go and get some help and slowly make their way through that process so that they can again be a safe person around their kids. You need to look at all of those things. To Conclude I think at the end of the day, we just have to remember what the kids' routines are. And if they're going to be moving between houses, how is this stuff going to move? Do they have two iPads, one at each house. Do they have school shoes, uniforms, all that stuff at each house? What does that look like? We've got to be really super practical with that stuff. They're not things that the court generally would make orders about, but I think those are things that you would discuss at mediation, so that you can have a smooth routine for the children, despite the parents not being in a relationship together. So aim of the game is to make sure that we look at the children's best interests, what's good for them. Should you wish to discuss mediation, please contact our office on 1300 444 LAW.