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If you are newly separated and even if you have been divorced for some time, you may be finding it difficult to communicate civilly and productively with your child’s other parent. Regardless of what your child custody arrangements look like, you and your co-parent will almost certainly be compelled to communicate regularly, provided that you have both elected to remain active in your child’s life. But how can you communicate civilly and productively if there is bad blood between you?

Thankfully, you do not need to remain in a loving and committed relationship in order to parent your child effectively as a team. If your co-parent is abusive, threatening or is otherwise behaving in unacceptable ways, please contact an experienced family law attorney. Otherwise, you may be able to co-parent more productively and civilly simply by employing a few fairly straightforward strategies.

For instance, keeping your child’s wellbeing at the forefront of your mind can produce astonishing results. It can be easy to get bogged down in your own emotions when interacting with your co-parent. However, keeping your child’s wellbeing front and center can help you to make healthy parenting decisions despite your personal emotions.

In addition, flexibility and organization are important tools to keep in your parenting toolbox. If you and your co-parent remain organized, fewer misunderstandings and miscommunications will occur. If you aim to remain flexible, you are likely to be dragged into fewer arguments about issues that are not worth your energy on that level.

Many of these strategies are easier to outline than they are to put into use consistently. However, some effort and intention may go a long way towards building a successful co-parenting relationship for your child’s benefit and for your own benefit as well.

Source: Findlaw Law & Daily Life, “Top 10 Tips for Successful Co-Parenting,” Jenny Tsay, March 27, 2014