Your child’s extracurricular activities serve as an important way to instill perseverance, dedication, and dependability. This applies to many different aspects of your child’s life including school events and church involvement as well as after-school sports, training, and rehearsals.

As parents, it is our job to make sure our kids get to where they need to be, on-time. Even though it may be challenging, it is essential for both parents to acknowledge the significance of following through with their children’s commitments.

Managing your kids’ activities with a shared calendar is crucial, especially for divorced or separated parents who have agreed to a co-parenting or shared custody arrangement. A rotating child custody schedule can be challenging and takes cooperation. That goes double for maintaining your child’s extracurricular schedule. The task of managing of synchronizing a calendar to fit the parenting schedule outline and including extracurricular activities along with your own personal commitments will take a direct strategy and the right tools. This is why a dedicated family calendar is paramount to doing what we need to do for our kids and keeping the peace. Wall & Wall Attorneys at Law are pleased to provide the following practical guide; Ways to Manage a Shared Family Calendar. We understand the importance of working with your ex-spouse to make this task a priority to keep your kids on track.

4 Ways to Manage a Shared Family Calendar

Using an electronic shared family calendar can improve communication and help avoid confusion to greatly improve your life and the lives of your children. You and your ex must be willing to dedicate yourselves to maintaining appointments, activities and other commitments in the calendar. Imagine how smooth things will be when you are prepared, in advance, for upcoming events broken down by the day, week and month.

1. Agree on the Agenda

The main structure of your shared family calendar will be laying out the parenting schedule. This schedule will serve as the skeleton for all additional entries and is crucial to put down in writing. When you have the basic shared custody schedule in place, work together to add appointments, events and your own schedule (if they impact the schedule) in order of importance.

  • Holidays
  • Appointments
  • Important Due Dates for School
  • School Activities
  • Music Lessons
  • Practice/Rehearsals
  • Game Days/Performance Days
  • Community or Church Events
  • Birthday Parties
  • Vacation Plans

2. Finding the Best Online Shared Calendar for Your Family

A paper calendar passed back and forth between co-parenting homes, used to be the only option to maintain a two-household agenda, but this left room for mistakes. A more efficient online calendar helps to eliminate problems like accidentally leaving it behind, losing it or forgetting to update it when needed. Everything you need as a co-parent is easily accessible online whenever you need it.

There are many different electronic family calendars that you, your ex and older kids can instantly access from any phone, tablet, laptop or desktop. Here are links to a few of the top shared family calendar subscriptions and apps available online:

3. Sharing with the Kids

It is important to include your kids in calendar schedule for things that they can have a say in. It is equally as important to keep kids informed about their daily schedule in advance to help avoid confusion, anxiety and tears. Following a routine dictated by the family calendar will help your kids understand time management, know what to expect and what is expected of them.

An up-to-date and organized family schedule will strengthen your relationship with your kids by providing a clear agenda where they can depend on focused time together. While older kids can review the family’s agenda by accessing it electronically, younger kids may need a printout or easy to read fridge calendar to keep them in the loop.

4. Set Ground Rules for Updating the Calendar

Finding a way to get your schedule organized, easily edit additions and sync between both homes is essential. Even if you are not on good terms, you and your ex can communicate and schedule the calendar and avoid a face-to-face or phone meeting that may cause unnecessary conflict.

Make sure you agree on what to put on the calendar and how you’ll share updates with each other, the kids and other important people in your kid’s lives like grandparents and caregivers. Choose the calendar you both agree on and stick to it, keeping in mind that the goal for both of you is the security and happiness of your kids.

Contact an Experienced SLC, Utah Divorce Attorney Today

The caring and compassionate law firm of Wall & Wall Attorneys at Law has over 190 years of combined experience in family law, child custody and divorce law in the state of Utah. We advocate the importance of communication between divorced parents for the sake of the wellbeing of your children. We can help settle issues with child custody, visitation and child support so you can focus on keeping up with your daily routine and spending more time with your kids. If you are struggling with the terms of your divorce decree we can help, call us today at 801-948-2188 to schedule a free case review today.

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