Co-parenting with a former partner often presents challenges during the best of times. In times of chaos and uncertainty, those challenges can become more pronounced. Not only are parents feeling the impact of the stay-at-home orders, job losses and financial uncertainty, but the children's worlds are also upended. Suddenly, predictable school schedules are in limbo, their social network is lost, and they cannot see their friends for an indefinite period of time.
Parents have an opportunity, though, to provide stability to their children by following the scheduled parenting plan. While the rest of the children's world is disrupted, they can be comforted by the certainty of seeing each parent at the regularly scheduled time.
Even if one parent is impacted by COVID-19, that stability can still be met by facilitating contact with the quarantined parent by telephone, text and videoconferencing. This is imperative, as limitations on contact between the parent and the children will only hurt the children and escalate their fears in this period of uncertainty.
Given the many inquiries of parents about the impact of COVID-19 on parenting plans, the Chief Justice of the Probate and Family Court issued an open letter regarding co-parenting. The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts also issued guidelines for co-parenting during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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