Marriages in Florida can end at any time, and for all sorts of reasons. Despite your best efforts, sometimes you and your spouse cannot work out your differences and divorce becomes the best and healthiest option for everyone involved, including the children of the relationship. However, we at Mary Gay McDaniel MGM Law remind you that while you can divorce your spouse, your children cannot divorce either of their parents. Therefore, you and your spouse must work together to find a way to effectively co-parent in service of your children’s best interests.

Collaborative divorce offers an alternative to aggressive and contentious divorce litigation in a courtroom setting. In a collaborative divorce, a mental health facilitator teams up with the divorcing parties and their lawyers, and everyone works together to create fair parenting plans and marital settlements that benefit parents and children alike.

According to the American Psychological Association, a high level of conflict between parents for a prolonged period of time can have a negative effect on children’s social and psychological development. This is true regardless of whether the conflict occurs before, during or after the parents’ divorce. A collaborative divorce helps to make the process of creating a co-parenting plan much more pleasant for both parents, which in turn is good for the children.

Remember that even though your marriage comes to an end, you must maintain some sort of relationship with your spouse for the sake of your children, and your co-parenting will be most successful if you and your spouse maintain a baseline level of civility with each other.