As a busy single-parent, you likely face many difficulties every day surrounding the care for your family and household. Having a job and trying to ensure that the children receive the proper care and attention can cause significant stress. One area that you likely want as stress free as possible is the picking up and dropping off of your kids with their other parent for visitation and custody exchange.
Utilize the custody agreement
When creating your child custody plans during the divorce proceedings, you may wish to add in drop off and pickup terms to your agreement. These terms can dictate specific locations deemed appropriate for the custody exchanges as well as who should pick up the kids. You may also want to brainstorm procedures for the possibility of a parent being late for the scheduled pick up time.
Drop-off locations
In some cases, a judge may order that a specific location serves as the exchange point. If not, you and your ex-spouse can determine which location works best for you. If you believe that the other parent poses a threat to you or may try to instigate unnecessary conflict during the drop off, choosing a public location may be wise.
Transportation costs
Of course, expenses will likely come into play as part of the drop off plan. Therefore, addressing these expenses may avoid a point of contention later. You could create terms that allow such expenses to fold into any child support paid, especially if the custodial parent does most of the traveling, or come to other agreements based on specific circumstances.
Seeking legal assistance
To ensure that your transportation schedule and terms are followed, you may want to make them legally binding. An experienced Maryland attorney could help you draft your custody agreement and address any concerns that you may have regarding visitation and custody exchanges. If you have any apprehensions, speaking with your legal counsel may allow you to find avenues for making your situation as amicable as possible.
If pick up and drop off terms were not part of an original custody agreement, or if the actions of one parent have presented issues, an attorney could assist you in modifying your custody agreement. These modifications could add stipulations that you may not have thought of at the time of the original drafting of the agreement or that have become necessary due to recent conflicts that have arisen.