Co-Parenting For Easter

It can be hard to find the time to spend with your children for holidays like Christmas or Easter. Sometimes it feels like there are so many things that need to be done that it can feel overwhelming. But don’t worry: It’s not impossible, and you don’t have to let one day stand in your way of spending time with your kids this holiday season.

Both parents should spend time with their children, and you may have to make sacrifices on one of the days. The trick is to adopt a certain routine. A routine helps both parents stay grounded. It helps you get into the habit of spending time with your child without thinking about what’s happening on the day of the holiday itself.

Basic Guidelines for Good Holiday Co-Parenting

Relax, take a deep breath, and a realize that a holiday involves you and your ex because you both love your child. Holidays are a time to be generous. Give the other parent what they want – whether they want time with their son or daughter or want to celebrate in their way. If you fully support their wishes, it will be easier to accept that they have different expectations than yours. When it comes to the children, remember that their holiday doesn’t revolve around who is or is not there. It’s about the kids. If your ex wants to celebrate Easter in their way, then let them. Let them join in on the fun.

Here are some tips for coparenting during the holiday:

Set a strict schedule for when each parent will spend time with their child

Sharing the child can be hard, and you may feel like you’re missing out on your child’s fresh innocence, but sharing them with their other parent gives you a chance to see how they interact with people. If a certain activity is important to your ex, then let them do it so your child can be part of their heritage. Please don’t be jealous when your ex wants to celebrate in their way. Be happy that they get to spend time with the rest of their family and interact with others.

Or maybe consider taking your child on a family trip to celebrate on a different day.

Work schedules may prevent you from spending time with your children throughout the holiday season. If this is the case, be honest about it, so there are no misunderstandings later. Give your child the option to spend time with their other parent if they want to. It can be a great way to get them to bond with their other parent.

Make Arrangements With Your Former Partner Ahead of Time

Planning is essential around holidays with your child. To make things easier on you and your ex, make arrangements with them a month or so early. It’s much easier to take things as they come, but if you plan ahead, it will be much more pleasant and easier for everyone..

Making arrangements can also help let your children know what to expect on Easter or other holidays. The preparations for Holidays are almost as much fun as the holiday itself. Planning things together will make them happy, so include them in the build up to the holiday as much as possible. Create fun activities together to prepare.

If you are not going to be with your child on the holiday, write a letter for each of them with the details of what you will be doing – like where you’re going so they have a chance to see where you’re spending the holidays, what you’ll be doing for dinner, and other details, so they know what to expect and they are not worried about you.

Work Past Bad Feelings

You may feel sad when a holiday rolls around, and you might even be angry with your child’s other parent for taking their child away from you. These feelings may linger if you dwell on them. Focus instead on getting things done – like going on a walk or buying presents, but it’s important not to forget about the feeling that you want to be with your child. If you push this feeling to the side and try to ignore it, you might ruin the holiday for you and your child. You can remember how much fun Easter was before, but now you get to create activities that you can cherish next year. Involve your child in creating new traditions rather than trying to recreate what happened in the past.

During this time, it might be helpful for you to talk with your child about good things you all did with your ex.

Remember that it’s not about you.

It can be hard to find the time to spend with your child when your ex also wants to spend some time with their child. Sometimes it feels like there are so many things that need to be done that it can feel overwhelming. Remember that time with your child is more important than everything else and that it’s not about you; it’s about your child. You need to put your child first. Remember that it is not a competition with your ex on who gets to spend more time with your child.

Try to be friendly and open with your ex about this difficult situation and let them know about other ways you’re going to celebrate the holidays. The more they know about the holiday, the more they can support your child in having a great time and not feeling bad about being away from you. It’s also a good idea to let them know how you’re going to be spending the holidays so that they can have your back with your child.

Give Children Special Experiences

Let your child know ahead of time, if possible, what it will be like to spend the holidays with each of their their parent. If there are activities that they won’t be able to do this year because of their family situation, give them the option to make a special wish list for what they want to do.

Take the child out to places where they have never visited before or places that bring them good memories when they were younger to put them at ease.

You can think of ways to make the holiday a little brighter by thinking of different activities they can do with their other parent or make up some new traditions with them. You can do fun things like going to the movies, playing sports, or even simply having a movie marathon. Other special experiences can involve decorating cookies, coloring Easter eggs together, or any other special things.

Consider Celebrating Together

It may seem quite hard to spend time together during the holiday as co-parents because of your history. Still, if both parties are up to it, then you can use this as an opportunity to put your past behind you and create new ways to celebrate together. It would be best to plan out ahead of time with your ex. Make sure that you discuss this beforehand and agree on what will be said, so there isn’t any miscommunication. This idea will help the children get to know their parents better, and they may better understand the situation.

If you’re not up for something like this, you can always talk positively of the other parent whenever the child is around so that they get to know them as well. You can tell them how much fun you used to have together and that you still love each other, but life is just a little harder than it used to be. You can even use this opportunity to help the child develop their relationship with their other parent.

Talk to Your Children

Talk about your relationship with the other parent with your child when they’re around. If you think about how it was before the separation, then express that or ask questions about their relationship to communicate its importance to you. When having conversations with your children, try to explain that there are different families, and some parents can’t be together anymore.

Use stories from your childhood to illustrate what you’re trying to say. Tell them that even though it may be hard to be away from one parent, they will still have another parent who loves them. You can tell them how important it is to you that they can maintain their relationship with their other parent so that they know how much you care about your child even when you’re not together.

Discussing these things can help your children deal with what is happening and prevent feelings of guilt or worry about the situation since they’ll know that it’s natural for people to be apart sometimes. This can also help them develop an understanding, especially if they see how happy you are for your time with them.

Split Time Equally

If you can agree on how much time your child will spend with their other parent, it’s best to stick to it. It helps make the transition easier for children since they know what to expect. Children are often sensitive to change and feel uncomfortable if things don’t go as planned.

You must keep scheduled appointments during the holiday period, e.g., daily or weekly.

If you and your former partner live far away, it’s even more important to have a plan in place to spend time with your child still. Talk about what will happen if the plans change. For example, if you live far from each other, you can agree on how to contact each other in case of any emergency.

This plan can be flexible depending on the situation, e.g., dropping a child off for the weekend after school or spending time with them over a longer period.

If there is any disagreement about how much time children will spend with their other parents, it is best to discuss this privately rather than impose your agreement on the child.

If you live close by, then its a lot easier since you can spend time together every day, even if it is just for a few hours in the evening.

It helps with consistency and makes transitions easier for children. It also helps with less conflict between you and your ex.

Take A Co-Parenting Class

Co-Parenting Classes are great ways to get insight into how to handle new situations and help you focus on improving your communication and relationship with your children.

It will also help you both to better understand each other and what happened int he past so that you don’t repeat your same mistakes. Our co-parenting class also can help you learn to work together as co-parents for your child’s best interests.

Co-parenting classes are not only there for couples who have been through a divorce, but also in other cases where parents have separated, or were never married or experiencing a relationship breakdown.

It is important to keep in mind that there are many different families, and parents can be apart even if they love each other.

Be Flexible

Be flexible while negotiating with each other during the holidays. Remember that with everything going on, children will sometimes want to be together with one parent, and at other times they may want to spend time with the other.

If you live far away from each other, let your children choose between one or both parents. Being flexible will help you maneuver your work and your free time to be available for your child whenever an opportunity avails itself.

Conclusion

The holiday season can be easier for everyone, especially your children, by being flexible and using the advice described above. Make it a point to spend time with your children and enjoy their company. It can be the best gift you can give them on any holiday.

The holidays are the best time for families to spend time together, so make it a good memory you will all treasure.