If you share children with your spouse, you will likely be able to maintain a relationship with them after a divorce. Kentucky law generally allows both parents to have custody or visitation rights to a minor assuming that granting those rights is in the child’s best interest. There are several steps that you can take to effectively parent with your former partner even if you don’t have romantic feelings for that person anymore.
Put your children first
Your children have nothing to do with the fact that your relationship ended or the fact that you have lingering feelings of resentment toward your former spouse. Therefore, their needs should be the top priority when crafting a parenting plan. The same should be true if a dispute arises after such a plan has been put in place. In some cases, you may have to forfeit parenting time or let other slights go in favor of making sure that your kids don’t have to witness a fight or deal with the stress that can result from one.
Limit communication with the other parent
Anything that you say or do might be used by your child’s other parent as leverage to modify an existing child custody arrangement. Therefore, it’s important to keep things civil regardless of how you feel about this person. You can make this easier on yourself by only communicating with the other parent about topics that involve your child.
You can also set boundaries as to how you communicate and how often you are forced to interact with your former partner. For example, you could stipulate that any issues related to your child will be discussed during a weekly phone call. Any emergencies that need to be dealt with promptly can be dealt with via text or some other method that makes sense.
After a divorce, the law places the best interests of your children above all else. Therefore, if you wish to have custody or other rights to your kids, you’ll need to prove that you are capable of working with your former spouse.