Our Family Wizard - how to "speak" to the other parent.....

Separation and divorce strain communication - that is because high emotions of disappointment, hurt and even anger are involved. And yet, in many cases, parents must continue to communicate about their children - this involves setting aside their own emotions for one another and focusing on the children's needs. 

Here is one suggestion of how they might do so effectively: 

Imagine: Parent 1 and Parent 2 recently separated. Parent 1 is supposed to pick up Child from school but is caught in a meeting that seems like it will never end. Parent 1 sends an email to Parent 2 (underneath the table so as to not draw any attention) asking Parent 2 to pick-up Child. Email goes to Parent 2’s junk folder and Child is left at school wondering...

When a relationship breaks down and there are children involved, effective communication between parents is essential to any successful co-parenting arrangement.

Our Family Wizard is an affordable software tool that is designed to streamline communications between parents. Some of the features include:

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• Calendar: This allows parents to clearly delineate parenting time or post when a child has an activity scheduled.

• Message Board: Parents can communicate freely about any child-related issue using the Message Board. Along with all of the other features of traditional email, Our Family Wizard indicates when a message has been viewed by the receiving Parent (avoiding the hypothetical situation described above). Parents also have optional access to the “ToneMeter”, which checks the tone of a message against 8 levels of connotative feeling to ensure that what you type is what you mean – no more 24 hour rule!

• Expense Log: When one parent incurs an expense on behalf of the child, and is seeking reimbursement from the other parent, s/he can post the expense and attach receipt/proof of payment on Our Family Wizard. This feature also allows you to keep a live record of payments on account of children’s expenses.

Because Our Family Wizard is a centralized and comprehensive hub of communications between parents, third party professionals can view the exchanges to offer insight in to how parents can better communicate with each other in light of the children’s best interests. Our Family Wizard is also a useful tool for Courts in understanding children’s issues in a particular family law case.

For more information, please go to: Our Family Wizard

UPDATE - January, 2018

We are pleased to let you know that our Etsy shop is now OPEN!

Visit it here: SELFREP SUPPORT

In the shop, we make available to you Manuals (E-books) on various topics, to assist you in representing yourself before Ontario's family law Courts.

So far, we have Manuals on preparing an effective:

• Financial Statement (both long-form and short-form); and
• Affidavit.

MORE MANUALS TO COME! 

"Normal" or "usual" access schedule

We are frequently asked by parents about a "standard" or "normal" access schedule. Is there such a thing?

Not really ~ access schedules vary with families, the parents' work commitments and the child's/children's needs but there are some patterns (assuming parents are not sharing the children's residence), for example:

1. Alternating weekends, with a mid-week visit. Here, there may be variations as to:

a. the beginning and end of the weekend access (eg: Friday after school or Saturday morning (for the start) and Sunday evening or Monday morning at school (for the end);

b. the duration and frequency of the mid-week access - it may be an overnight or just dinner, for example. It may also be limited only to weeks which do not end with the access parent's weekend.

2. alternating Saturdays and Sundays (with the parents sharing each weekend but alternating as to the day);

There are a number of other variations of the above themes, depending on each family's needs.  The keys to making any access arrangement work, for the children and the parents, are:  open minds, good faith, patience and a recognition that children must never be caught up in disputes between their parents.

Amedeo Modigliani - Seated Woman in Blue Dress - 1918