Signs of an effective co-parenting relationship

Co-parenting is never easy. Nonetheless, it is best for the children to have a relationship with both parents. And these relationships need to be free of conflicts and should have high levels of communication and collaboration irrespective of what either parent is up to, say, incorporate a new family.

It is common to get worried that a former partner is likely to not take well your new relationship. But when your co-parenting is effective and you are respectful of one another and raising your children in the best health and emotional secure way is the priority, inter-family stress becomes your least reason to worry.

If you and your ex-partner hack it and effectively co-parent your children, you give them the confidence and stability they need growing up. To get you started, we highlight some co-parenting strategies that can help you understand ways to effectively co-parent so that you provide your children with a balanced and happy upbringing.

Irrespective of the magnitude of the issues you have with your former partner, you have to put your children’s needs on the front burner. Well, the divorce or separation may be messy, but by making your children’s security and stability a priority, you give yourselves a chance to securing a peaceful divorce, if you think about it.

If you find it challenging, you and your ex-partner can consider seeing a family therapist to help you bring the conversation back to what is best for the children if you find yourselves succumbing to the heat of your past marital issues.

Communication is one of the most basic rules of co-parenting. You need to be realistic about your own strengths as well as your limitations. It doesn’t have to be face-to-face discussions and you need to accept that your partner might be too angry or upset to talk in person. As thus, you should always be open to other less emotional means of communicating about your children and whatever you settle on, sharing information about your children should always remain open.

The last thing you should do is shut down communication channels in a bid to punish your ex. Remember that no matter how complex it gets for you as an individual, not communicating about your children only hurts the children.

As you get your groove of co-parenting, you should aim for reaching a point where you and your ex-partner can communicate comfortably in person without having to exchange blows. Getting back to speaking terms sends a positive message to the children

Being consistent and in an agreement with the rules regarding, discipline, bedtime, playtime, screen time, personal hygiene, household chores and behavior in general gives the best scenario in co-parenting.

As co-parents, you should try not to end up in big parenting debates when it comes to making decisions about your children. This is why it is key that both of you be working towards raising your kids in a healthy and supportive environment so that you don’t end up trying to micromanage each other’s parenting decisions – all the decisions should be in the best interest of the kids. In the long run, you and your partner won’t end up feeling belittled or try to prove a point by being unreasonably difficult.

On the off chance that everything seems to be failing, you can always consider parallel parenting as sometimes co-parenting might just not be the best strategy at a given moment.

Parallel parenting is an alternative co-parenting where, as opposed to co-parenting, the parents disengage from each other as much as possible while still being actively involved in the lives of their children.