You want to pay the fair amount of child support and spend as much time as possible with your kids. Easy, right? Unfortunately, no. It can be very difficult for divorced parents to agree on a child custody schedule that lets them both enjoy their children as much as possible. Generally there is a custodial parent who has the kids most of the time–and the non-custodial parent gets to spend some time with them and pay child support. The non-custodial parent may feel completely helpless about getting more time with the children and he/she may feel like there is nothing they can do to lower the child support payments. Fortunately, there are things a non-custodial parent can do to gain more time with the children–and if they spend more time with the children then the child support payments generally go down. One way to do this is to use unspecified vacations.
Let’s start with a fairly typical child custody arrangement. The child visitation schedule is set up so that the non-custodial parent has the children every other weekend. Since the children are most often with the custodial parent, the child support payments will be large. With this visitation agreement, the non-custodial parent has about fifteen percent of the custody time. Negotiating for unspecified vacations, however, can increase this time.
Unspecified vacations are general periods of time set aside in a visitation plan for one parent or the other without any specific dates attached. A typical order would read: "Father may take a vacation with the children each year of up to one uninterrupted week two times per year and must notify Mother of specific dates thirty days prior to vacation." This means that Dad gets two separate weeks a year when he can take the kids–and he can do it whenever he chooses. Attorneys generally use this type of unspecified vacation when parties want the flexibility to go on trips–but not at the same exact days and times each year. Also, it’s useful for parents who simply want more vacation options or are uncertain about plans for summer break.
So, the smart parent will look through the calendar and choose vacation times that will maximize the time with their children. The parent should choose the weeks when they don’t already have custody of their children. A parent can also look into purchasing a child custody software that will calculate the best time for them to schedule the vacation. We scheduled two of these vacations with the scenario used before–and the percentage time shot up to eighteen percent. This is a double bonus for the non-custodial parent. You’ll get to spend more time with your child and, since child support payments are based on the percentage of time spend with the child, your child support payments will decrease. And, there’s the obvious fact that now you get to take your kids on vacation whenever you want during the year. So, take the money you save in child support and you’re on your way!
Lower your child support payments and create the perfect child custody calendar and visitation schedule.
Article Source: Lower Your Child Support Payments and Spend More Time with Your Child