It’s time to decide whether your child will get their own cell phone. Whether you are going through a divorce, divorced, or never married, Collaborative Practice offers some valuable lessons for making this and other important parenting decisions.
There is a real need for certain limitations on your child’s use of their cell phone, to keep their life on track. Agree on specified times for your child to use their cell phone. Designate times your child’s cell phone needs to be turned off. Why, when, and how, will your child’s cell phone use be limited, as a means of discipline? Know the rules and cell phone policy of your child’s school and insist they be followed.
Know the password to your child’s cell phone. Any “app” on your child’s cell phone should be downloaded by you. Make sure you know every contact in your child’s cell phone. Teach your child not to share their phone number with anyone they don’t know.
Teach your child to let you know as soon as they receive a suspicious or alarming call or text message. Teach your child to let you know as soon as they are being harassed or bullied by someone on their cell phone. Teach your child not to answer or return calls or text messages from someone they don’t know.
Of course these suggestions depend on the age of your child, as well as a variety of other factors. Every child is different. Each family has their own ideas for determining what concerns are most important for them. In Collaborative Practice, the parties and their Collaborative Professionals focus all of their energy and resources on creative problem solving. In Collaborative Practice, workable options are found. Collaborative Practice minimizes hostility, by emphasizing understanding and cooperation.
Collaborative Practice is for people who want respectful, civilized resolutions of the issues in their case. Collaborative Practice is for people who want to protect their children from the harm associated with conflict and contentious litigation. Collaborative Practice is likely to work for you, if:
Kids are naturally impulsive and not great decision makers. Their brains are still developing until approximately age twenty-five (25), in the areas of decision making, sexuality, emotional, and impulse control. You know your child better than anyone else. When in doubt, don’t be afraid to ask for some guidance from the professionals who know about such matters. Follow the recommendations of your healthcare providers and educational professionals.
Gary is an attorney and former member of CFLA.
Make Your Missouri Divorce Less Painful Preparation, getting the right support, and making sure you educate yourself on the right and wrong things to do can make the process a little less painful. Let’s take a look at some of the best and worst things you can do during the divorce process. Here are 5 […]
It’s time to decide whether your child will get their own cell phone. Whether you are going through a divorce, divorced, or never married, Collaborative Practice offers some valuable lessons for making this and other important parenting decisions. There is a real need for certain limitations on your child’s use of their cell phone, to […]
There’s something to be said for the “drama-free” divorce. Well, maybe not drama-free, since getting a divorce tends to be a very emotional chapter in the lives of most couples. But in my opinion, a divorce with minimal drama ought to be a goal. The Cost of Drama in Divorce It’s not that I don’t […]
Parents of special needs or medically complex children move through their life with a certain amount of grief always present. Grief is the name of the process we are hard-wired to experience when we face loss or transition. Parents are deeply connected to the hopes and dreams they have for their children often years before […]
Getting divorced when you are the parent of a special needs or medically complex child can seem like a daunting task that could put an unbearable amount of additional stress on an already stressed-out family system. Many couples with a special needs child make the default decision to stay in an unhappy marriage because the […]
When two people get married they emotionally attach to dreams, hopes, fantasies and plans of what their life will be like. For some, getting and being married is a central part of their religion or spirituality. Getting divorced forces people to let go of deeply held hopes and dreams and re-negotiate their world view. The […]
More goes into telling your kids about divorce than just having a one-time, prepackaged sit down and delivering the information. The stage of development that your child is in will have a big impact on how you have the conversation about your divorce and what to expect next. Children who are young, under 5, are […]
Divorce is on your horizon and having experienced professionals in your corner will make the collaborative divorce process less time consuming and arduous. If you are seeing a therapist, hopefully you are, your therapist should be one of those helpers getting you through the emotional obstacle course, as well as providing you logistical information. Even […]
Money has emotion attached to it. Money represents security and safety. Lack of money means insecurity and fear. Divorce means money will be split up. Splitting one pot of money into two pots of money creates emotion, and rarely are these emotions positive. For many in divorce, it’s a surprise that their 401k is a […]
SO, YOU WANT A SIMPLE DIVORCE? I often hear this from prospective clients, usually in relation to the anticipated cost of getting divorced. As in, “how much will it cost me for a simple divorce?” My answer is normally, “it depends,” and that begins a rather lengthy conversation about what, exactly it depends on. In […]