It may have taken some time for you and your spouse to realize that your love for each other has faded to the point where you no longer want to be romantically involved. The two of you make better friends than lovers, and you are ready to end your marriage and move forward with your lives apart.
You may agree that parting ways is probably the best solution for the two of you, but you also want to reduce the impact your divorce will have on your children. The problem is that the strain of your relationship has the two of you prone to arguing, and you can’t seem to reach an agreement on your own.
Child custody mediation could provide the solution
If you need some help keeping on track as you negotiate your child custody agreement and parenting plan, you may want to consider using mediation. If you have already considered this idea but need more information, understanding the benefits you, the other parent and your children receive from the process may help you make your choice. The most common upsides to this process include those listed below:
- The process reduces stress since it is not an adversarial process. You and the other parent are not pitted against each other as you would be in a court battle.
- You are encouraged to compromise and communicate throughout the process in order to reach an agreement with which everyone will feel satisfied.
- Mediation isn’t about blame or the past. In fact, the mediator keeps the focus on the future of your family.
- If you and your future former spouse begin to argue and stray from the topic at hand, the mediator helps to bring you back on topic.
- You and your future co-parent learn new ways to communicate with each other that will help reduce conflict in the future.
- You retain control of what the future of your family will look like. You have the freedom to think outside the box when it comes to parenting time solutions.
You can both walk away from mediation feeling as though you achieved something that will carry your family well into the future. As long as you keep your children’s best interests at the heart of the mediation process, any agreement you and the other parent negotiate should meet with the approval of an Ohio court.
However, it is necessary to remember that the mediator is not there to protect your rights. You will need to make sure of that on your own. Even if your divorce is amicable, it would be a mistake not to make sure you walk away without giving up any of your rights. For this reason, it is advisable to work with a family law attorney to increase the chances of avoiding a potentially costly mistake.
