Services –
Children & Parenting
Separation and divorce can have significant impact on the lives of children through the changing dynamic of the family. Trying to work out what is best for children can be complex and needs thoughtful and careful consideration and attention.
Mediation termed ‘Children and Parenting’ creates a space for separating parents to focus their conversation on allowing their children every possible opportunity of maintaining and developing a positive loving relationship with both going forward, to determine what will be best for them.
Beginning with your initial meetings we work together to develop a personalised mediation process that will allow your family to determine for itself how best to structure the children’s arrangements after separation.
Whether this is recorded in a detailed Parenting Plan or to simply work through one or two clearly identifiable issues, your mediator will support and facilitate your own conversation as parents. This will allow the space and time necessary to work constructively together, enabling your commitment to your children’s wellbeing and happiness and give them the gift of just being children.
Children and Parenting mediation can help you decide on questions like:
-
What we think is important for our children to know
-
Our children’s living arrangements
-
How they will spend their time between us
-
How we will arrange holiday times
-
How we will arrange special days – their birthdays, religious holiday, family and school events
-
How we will make sure they can see other family members and friends
-
How we will manage their health needs (including required vaccinations etc.)
-
How we will manage any special needs
-
What we hope to arrange about their education (and homework etc.)
-
How we will manage new relationships
The decisions you will make will centre as much as possible around the voices of your children and that which they are saying they want for themselves, as much as is practicable and possible. As part of your conversation together, you can discuss how you would like to bring those voices into the mediation, where appropriate (see also section on Child Inclusive Mediation or CIM)
“Following the completion of mediation, the access arrangements to my daughter have been working well. We have enjoyed our first holiday together which would not have been possible had it not been for your balanced input.”