How to Handle Conflict over Children’s Activities and Sports

A Parenting Consultant may be the answer to helping solve everyday parenting conflicts including activities and sports. A Parenting Consultant’s goal is to help parents make decisions in the best interests of their children and avoid costly legal battles. There are many everyday decisions which the courts don’t want to take the time to consider. A common area of disagreement is the activities in which children will participate. Even if parents could afford to have attorneys argue about children’s activities, the court does not want to get involved in these kinds of decisions. These decisions are important though and they can impact parenting time significantly.

For example, dad wants his 8 year old son to play hockey and mom says she cannot afford the time or the financial commitment that hockey would entail. Mom says she doesn’t support hockey and won’t take him to practices/games on her parenting time and she won’t pay for the fees or the equipment. The son doesn’t want mom to have more financial problems but does want to play hockey. The parents could go to court, but on what grounds? Can a judge really decide whether a child should play hockey? Despite living in the “state of hockey”, there are no laws on which a judge could rely to say whether a child should or should not play hockey. There are laws which allow a judge to define what is in the best interests of a child and there are laws regarding what decisions parents must make together if they have joint or sole physical custody.

Having a neutral third party who only has the best interests of the child in mind can help parents separate what might be good for them vs. what might be best for the child. A parenting consultant will try to help the parties mediate the issue, but if that fails, a parenting consultant usually has the authority to make a decision the parents must follow. Contact us today to learn more about how a parenting consultant can help minimize the conflict in your life.