Planning for a vacation with your kids when you are a co-parent with your ex requires careful planning and communication to ensure the experience is enjoyable. The process of organizing such a trip necessitates clear communication and mutual agreement on various aspects of the journey. This includes selecting a destination, deciding on travel dates and mapping out an itinerary. Documenting these plans through emails or a co-parenting app is a practical step to keep all parties informed and aligned with the agreed-upon arrangements. Consider these points if you’re planning this kind of vacation ..read more

The holidays are a time of family get-togethers and celebrations, and they are inevitably also very stressful. Gift-giving can strain household finances, and the need to get together with extended families can damage already challenging relationships. Many people realize during the holidays that their marriage is beyond salvaging, but quite a few others enter the holiday season fully planning to file for divorce once the holidays end. Particularly for those with children, filing before the holidays may seem too disruptive. How can someone make it through the holiday season when stress levels a ..read more

Parenting is a very expensive social responsibility. Once someone has a child, they have a legal obligation under Tennessee state law to provide for that child’s basic needs. Parents should be able to provide food and shelter, as well as basic medical care and access to necessary amenities like healthcare, for example. Parents living together pool their resources and share responsibility to offer their children the best quality of life possible. When parents divorce, they generally need to split their obligations with each other in addition to sharing their parental rights. Both parents usuall ..read more

Although people have a strong association between marriage and parenthood, one does not need a formal relationship with the other parent of a child to make new life. In fact, sometimes people who don’t even have a romantic relationship at all end up parenting together. Married fathers in Tennessee have a relatively easy time protecting their paternal rights. Hospital workers will typically put them on the birth certificate automatically after the child’s birth, and they can quickly negotiate for a temporary custody arrangement as soon as they begin living separately from their children or the ..read more

There are thousands of blended families with underage children in Tennessee. Plenty of stepparents fill a paternal role in the lives of children to whom they technically have no legal obligations. Many of the stepparents currently living with stepchildren in Tennessee may eventually decide that they want to adopt their stepchildren. Stepparent adoption can be a complicated process involving bureaucratic paperwork and court hearings. Some people scoff at the idea of adopting a child who already lives in their home and is being properly provided for. However, there are some very valuable benefit ..read more

When you share with your closest friends or family members that you intend to file for divorce, they may react with surprise or sometimes with relief if they have never had a great relationship with your spouse. Even if you don’t ask for it, they are likely to try to give you some advice to help you get through this difficult transitional process. One of the first pieces of advice people give is also one of the worst pieces of advice for someone contemplating a divorce. Your sister or your coworkers mean well when they tell you that you should start hiding cash in your dresser drawer or start ..read more

Children are about to head back to school, and parents know that life is going to change. The kids have been at home all summer, and life may have been very busy with trips and other activities. But they’re going to revert to the classroom, and parents will have more time to themselves. For this reason, a lot of parents who have been considering divorce over the summer will decide to file in the fall. There is a general spike in divorce filings at this time every year – especially in August – and one of the major reasons for it is simply that the parents were waiting until the school year bega ..read more

It can be hard to find common ground with your ex about anything during a breakup or a divorce. Shared custody of your children will force you to frequently see each other, and you may disagree strongly about the right way to divide parenting time and other parental responsibilities. Many times, children feel stuck in the middle of feuding parents during a contested divorce, especially when there is a custody issue. Sometimes, they choose to take sides, which can strain the relationship with the other parent. Can a child’s opinion impact custody disputes? If you recently been through a rocky t ..read more

By the time a judge finalizes your divorce or approves your parenting plan, you have likely had your fill of the Tennessee family court system. It is expensive and often frustrating to litigate custody matters and other issues in a pending divorce. You may hope to never see the inside of a courtroom again once a judge approves your divorce. Unfortunately, even if you spent a lot of time and mental effort to create a parenting plan that will grow with your children, you may need to adjust your custody order eventually. How do you know when it is time to modify the custody arrangements you set i ..read more

Not understanding what happens in a divorce is one of the main reasons people put off filing. They may have heard such compelling horror stories from others that they don’t want to take any risks. What people sometimes fail to understand is that divorce outcomes differ dramatically from state to state and even family to family. Someone complaining of a particularly unfair outcome may have been subject to terms they originally approved in a marital agreement. They may also have divorced in a state with very different property division was then the rules that decide what happens to your assets i ..read more