Having a solid parenting plan after a divorce ensures that the child receives the love and care they deserve from both parents. A good parenting plan addresses issues like custody, visitation and child support, among others.

However, drawing up a parenting plan when one or both parents are in the military can be tricky. This is especially true if either parent is currently on deployment. Here are tips that can help:

First things first

Here are some important provisions that you should include in the plan:

• Custody schedules and how those schedules will be executed
• Communication channels between the parents as well as between the parents and the children
• Any medical coverage costs and responsibilities that are not covered in the family care plan
• Child support and each parent's contribution

While drafting your co-parenting plan, be sure to keep in mind the child's age as well as any special needs they might have.

Co-parenting plan and deployment

When you sign up for military service, you become available for deployment at any time. As such, your parenting plan should address what will happen when you are deployed. One way of taking care of this would be to specify the circumstances under which you can create a temporary plan and how you can transition between the temporary and the long-term plans. This is especially important if both parents are in active service and thus subject to deployment at different times.

Parenting after divorce becomes especially challenging if one or both parties are in the military. Find out how you can draft a parenting plan that takes care of the best interest of everyone involved.