As you begin to work through your divorce issues with your future former spouse, you may have trouble envisioning a time when the two of you will get along well enough to co-parent. Even so, you both agree that you need to find a way to make it work for your children.
You may consider using mediation to settle your child custody issues because it may help you figure out the best way to forge a new parental relationship post-divorce. However, you aren’t sure whether it would be the best choice for you and the other parent.
Here’s why you may want to give it a try
Perhaps, if you understood better how mediation could help you come to a mutually satisfactory child custody agreement and create a workable parenting plan, it would help you make your decision. To that end, consider the following:
- Mediation removes the stress of a contentious divorce, which will help your children through the process as they transition into a new way of life.
- Mediation is not about assigning blame regarding your marital relationship. Instead, it focuses on the future and finding an amicable resolution to your issues.
- Mediation removes the adversarial component of the divorce process that going to court tends to encourage.
- Mediation helps keep conflict at bay since the mediator is there to “referee” any disputes and get you back on track with your negotiations.
- Mediation helps you develop conflict resolution techniques and fosters open communication, which could help lay the foundation for your post-divorce co-parenting relationship.
- The mediator does not represent either of you. Instead, the mediator focuses on helping the two of you come together in order to reach an agreement.
- Mediation fosters compromise, which will help in the future.
- Mediation removes the stress associated with “battling it out” in court.
If the above appeal to you, then child custody mediation may be a viable option in your case. The fact that you are even considering mediation could mean that you want to avoid further degrading your relationship with the other parent and want to do what is necessary in order to make the situation better for your children.
Like other California parents who have been through a divorce, you want to put your children’s needs ahead of your own and reach an agreement that serves their best interests. Mediation could help you achieve that goal.