Co-parenting is not easy, especially if you two live in different states. When you are handling a situation like this, it is important to keep these four things in mind to make the experience run smoothly:

Make Travel Arrangements

To make things easier, you and your co-parent should have travel arrangements made well in advance for your children. Fumbling and scrambling with your children when it is time to switch from parent to parent can cause unnecessary stress in their lives. Avoid this by making solid decisions regarding things such as travel expenses, dates, and locations.

Practice Good Communication with Your Kids

Although your kids are no longer with you all the time, you should keep in contact with them while they are with their other parent. You can do things such as arranging specific times for calls or video chats or simply texting them to check in every once in a while.

Practice Good Communication with Your Co-Parent

Co-parenting does not work unless you are willing to put in the effort to make it work. Maintaining open and mature communication with your co-parent is vital to your child’s success. There are many great tools out there to help with this such as TalkingParents and Custody X Change.

Utilize Technology

We are lucky enough to live during a time when we can talk to anyone at any time and manage co-parenting duties easily. In fact, there are even various platforms you can use to do so! Just because you are separated from your children by state lines does not mean your communication with them needs to suffer. Take advantage of the time you live in and utilize the technology you are provided.

With hard work, good communication skills, and the use of technology, co-parenting can work no matter where your family is located. Many people have co-parenting horror stories; do not let them scare you. Follow these four tips and you can defy the co-parenting stereotypes.