Getting divorced does not mean that you’re done being a parent. You still need to raise your child and, if you share custody with your ex, this is still something of a team effort.
As you can imagine, that can make things difficult. You may not want to work with your spouse. You might not agree on how to raise your child. You can run into a lot of issues that, while married parents could see these same issues, may seem direr since you are divorced. Examples include:
- Disagreements about general parenting tactics, such as co-sleeping vs. sleeping alone
- Disagreements about what children should be allowed to consume, either for meals or snacks — or both
- Disagreements over healthcare decisions, like whether or not the children should get vaccines
- Disagreements over what chores the children should do or if they should have to do them at all
- Disagreements on what to buy the kids, such as one parent wanting to buy a child a cellphone and the other arguing that it is too expensive or unneeded at that age
- Disagreements on what are necessary purchases or how much to spend, which may be tied to conversations about child support
- Disagreements on what values the children should be raised to respect
- Disagreements on what types of media, such as movies and video games, the child should be allowed to engage with
These are just a handful of examples, but you can see how much of your daily life could be impacted. Be sure you are well aware of the legal rights you have and how the two of you can work together.