Every parent’s reasons for moving far away from the child’s usual home base are unique and often multifaceted.  As a result, there are as many permutations of long-distance parenting plans as there are parents!

DADvocacy is in the building phase of creating this resource. Please check back for updates, as we hope to post a long-stance parenting plan soon. We anticipate increasing and/or changing our offerings here.

In the meantime, we will cover the basics of long-distance timesharing plans and simply offer prompts for drafting below.

Often the long-distance plan refers to situations in which one parent stays in Florida, and the co-parent moves to another state. However, “long-distance” can simply mean a distance of more than fifty (50) miles.

There are some general rules in our long-distance plans:

1. The parent who stays behind in Florida or in the child’s hometown does not pay for the child’s travel.
2. The child’s vacation time is maxed out in favor of the parent who stays behind in Florida or in the child’s hometown.
3. Provisions for communication with the child should be broad. We never want to limit the ways that a child can converse with a coparent while in the physical custody of the other parent. Once upon a time, plans referenced only nightly phone calls as we did not have Facetime or Zoom as a means of telling a goodnight story. Drafting should allow enough room for future technologies that are not yet known.
4. There should be time for the parent who stays behind in Florida or in the child’s hometown to visit the coparent’s new location: this is the time to meet teachers at the child’s new school, to meet the child’s new friends, and to attend special events (e.g., chaperone your child’s dance, watch your child’s play, etc.).

Warning: All posts, templates, forms, blogs, “chalkboards,” “DIY Tool Shed” items, and the like  on this website contain general information about legal matters for broad educational purposes only and may not be helpful for your particular litigation. Any information contained on this site is not legal advice and should not be treated as such. These materials do not create any attorney-client or any mediator-client relationship between the reader and the DADvocacy™ Law Firm.