Christmas. Thanksgiving. Easter. Any major holidays accompanied by a significant break from school are factored into the parenting time equation in a divorce. Halloween doesn’t always get the same consideration. However, you don’t have to miss out on the fun with your kids if you work with a Michigan divorce lawyer who knows how to negotiate for what you want.
Make October 31 Part of Parenting Time
When you’re in the middle of a divorce, kid-centric things that made your home fun and festive can be overlooked in favor of the big picture. But memories are made on the last day of October – and both parents (even the ones who don’t love Halloween) understandably don’t want to miss out.
While October 31 usually belongs to the parent who has that day of the week, whenever the occasion happens to fall, that assumption doesn’t have to stick. It’s important to make sure your parenting time wish to be with your kids on Halloween is honored in your divorce settlement.
Here are some options that can usually transcend child custody arrangements:
- Split the night: If you and your ex live close enough to each other, you could split the trick-or-treating for the night and give your kids an hour in one neighborhood and an hour in the other for a major candy haul.
- Be agreeable: Halloween could be a little like Christmas – one parent gets October 31 and the other gets the weekend before Halloween, which is when most of those fantastic enchanted forests and haunted house tours take place. Your kid will still get a chance to dress up and you’ll get those awesome photo ops without feeling like you missed out.
- Split day and night: If you don’t want to interact with your ex at all, agree to give up the school Halloween parades and classroom parties in favor of having the kids all to yourself that night, or vice versa.
- Trick or treat together: If your kids want to see both parents on Halloween or you don’t want to enforce a split holiday on them for this special, spooky day, make a pact to get along for the duration of October 31 for your kids’ sake. Let them enjoy the festivities without worrying about where the other parent is or what they’re missing out on.
If you want to see the cutest witches and superheroes in your family, you might have to do things you don’t want to do or see people you don’t want to see on Halloween. Hey, you can always wear a mask so your ex won’t see you rolling your eyes (and your kids won’t either).
And while you don’t have a lot of control over how your ex chooses to spend his or her parenting time with your children, it’s OK to lay down the law about what your kids are exposed to on this creepy holiday. Scary movies, terrifying decorations – they’re the things of nightmares. Agree to enforce the same rules so no parent has a kid who’s waking up every night after Halloween worrying about Michael Myers coming to get them.
Contact Michigan Divorce Help PLLC in Mount Clemens to get answers to all your questions about parenting time in a Michigan divorce.