As part of a divorce, you will have to draft up a Parenting Plan that outlines a timesharing schedule for you and your former spouse to co-parent your child. Generally, these timesharing schedules will consider each parent’s work schedule and reflect the percentage of time each parent will spend with the child.
If you have to frequently travel for your job, take this into consideration when drafting up your parenting plan. A skilled Los Angeles family law attorney will be able to help you work out a reasonable timesharing schedule with your spouse that takes into account the possibility of work travel.
The Parenting Plan can include stipulations that account for who will care for your child when you are out of town and the steps you need to take to notify the other parent of your absence. If you infrequently travel for work or are given little notice, your parenting plan might not need to account for this, but will include general provisions anyways for when either of you cannot exercise your visitation time.
Periodic work travel should not affect the timesharing schedule significantly, however, if you habitually travel for several days at a time, it is best to incorporate that into the parenting plan while drafting it. Family law judge’s want to look out for the best interests of your child and if you will need to frequently have third parties, like babysitters or nannies, care for your child during your visitation time, it might be in the best interest of your child to simply have more time with the other parent.
Remember, the other parent has the Right of First Refusal. You must first ask if they can take your child before seeking childcare. Timesharing schedules will affect your child support order as well so keep that in mind. The burden of making the Parenting Plan work is on you so be sure to have an experienced family law attorney draft up a strong Parenting Plan that looks ahead to possible work travel to ensure plans are in place for when you do travel.