Parents in California who go through a divorce must learn to work together in a new way. Divorced parents who do not cooperate with each other inevitably end up involved in disputes over scheduling, parenting and child support issues. When disputes cannot be resolved privately, divorced parents may end up back in court.
Divorced parents may be able to avoid legal battles by viewing each other as partners. Setting hard feelings from the divorce aside, they should try to focus only on parenting issues when speaking with each other. When dealing with an ex-spouse, a divorced parent might want to set boundaries for conversations by limiting the talk to issues concerning the child.
Even if one parent is capable of limiting conversation topics to those that involve the child, the other parent may bring up things from the past. To avoid fights, a divorced parent should try not to get baited into arguments. If one parent sends mean and angry text messages, the other parent should try not to respond in kind. Instead of participating in an argument, a divorced parent may want to think about what underlying issues may have caused the argument to start and figure out how to resolve those issues.
The absence of a detailed parenting plan is often an underlying cause of many arguments between divorced parents. While parents are separating, a parenting plan may be created that sets a parenting schedule, divides parenting time for holidays and birthdays and addresses every other foreseeable parenting issue that could cause conflict. An attorney may be able to help a divorcing parent to negotiate a parenting plan that is comprehensive and detailed.