Co-Parenting is Essential

After a couple with children breaks up, it’s important to establish a healthy co-parenting relationship. When couples fight over co-parenting issues, it is usually a sign that someone has unresolved issues and hasn’t gotten over the fact that the relationship is over. Children should not be used to work out unresolved issues in a relationship. But too often, they are.

The first step to overcoming co-parenting issues is to separate the parenting from the broken relationship. Children don’t have time to wait for the two parents to work out their issues. The children’s needs persist regardless of the condition of their parents’ relationship. The children’s needs should be the focus of both parents. If one parent withholds care and love from a child, it hurts the child more than the other parent. Separating the parenting from the broken relationship requires each parent to compartmentalize and focus on the children.

Another thing that helps build a good co-parenting relationship is parenting classes. Most courts have required or suggested parenting classes. It’s not enough to just take the classes. Parents must apply what they learn in the classes to build a co-parenting relationship with each other.

Counseling is also helpful in building a co-parenting relationship. You may be out of the relationship but still reacting to the same toxic cycle as if you’re still in the relationship. You can’t change the past, but you can get help on how to build a different and better future. Counseling will help you come out of the fog of the broken relationship so you are available to offer your children the best parenting (and co-parenting) possible.

Here is more information for this topic from the Texas Attorney General’s website: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/child-support/families-and-parenting/parenting-together-living-apart