Understanding Your Children's Changing Needs When Creating a Virginia Child Custody Agreement
A child custody agreement can be modified as the needs of both the parents and the children change as they grow up. Understanding that children's needs do change as they grow from infant to toddler to small child to adolscent and finally to young adult is part of creating a successful custody arrangement.
March 01, 2012
Child custody agreements are useful in helping parents define their roles as caretakers and reach compromises about raising their children, ensuring that children's needs are met and that they are consistently cared for to the satisfaction of both parents. When issues arise, child custody agreements can help parents resolve them.Virginia child custody and/or visitation agreements are tools in the parenting process and they do have limitations. Even with clearly defined agreements, parents can face challenges with co-parents as they balance their roles in their children's changing lives.
Children's Needs Change as They Grow and Develop
One feature of child custody agreements that can be problematic is that they do not require taking the age or developmental stage of children into consideration. Children's stages of development affect the level of attachment they have to their parents and the level of autonomy they can benefit from. Young children, including infants, toddlers and preschoolers, benefit from a high level of stability with consistent daily schedules and regular access to both parents.
School-age children begin to rely more on their peers and themselves, but need to have consistent feedback from parents and secure schedules with the ability to commit to long-term attendance and participation in classrooms and activities. School-aged children can benefit from agreements that ensure parents allow their children to keep regular academic and social commitments.
As children reach and go through adolescence, children still need parental guidance, as well as time with their peers and time to participate in long-term activities. During adolescence, having access to both parents and having household rules enforced consistently is essential. Agreements that stress consistency may best assist parents in raising adolescents.
The quality of the time spent with children and consistency regarding their schedules and upbringing may be the most important part of rearing healthy and happy children. However, child custody agreements necessarily emphasize the quantity of time spent with children because it is often a point of contention between parents as well as one which can be clearly defined and regulated.
Regardless of actual time spent, what benefits children is often the feeling that they have access to their parents. Consistency in scheduling is important primarily at young ages, while a balanced outlook and increased flexibility becomes more important in later stages of children's development. Child custody agreements should be made with all of these considerations in mind, as well as your own unique family circumstances, when attempting to keep the children's best interests at heart. A child custody attorney in your area can answer your questions about visitation and parenting time when working to create a schedule that both you and your child's co-parent can agree on.
Article provided by Cravens & Noll PC
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