August is a month of anticipation in Houston. A new school year is close on the horizon, which means that life for parents and children is about to change once again. This is especially applicable to children and parents of divorce. After all, information must now be shared between two households instead of one. This could pose problems between parents who have trouble communicating.
Nevertheless, divorcing parents must work together to co-parent, and it may take a period of adjustment (just like kids may go through one at their new school).
With that, there are some lessons parents can learn.
Lesson 1 – Sharing is caring – Even though divorcing parents may not stand the sight of each other, they both have to understand that they still have to keep their children’s best interests at heart. Sharing school information is a large part of that.
Lesson 2 – The law requires sharing – Under Texas law, each parent is entitled to have information about their child’s school progress, including report cards and other academic records.
Lesson 3 – You won’t be left out if you’re proactive – Taking the initiative to be included on email lists, and scheduling conferences with teachers and administrators is very helpful.
Lesson 4 – Use a centralized information hub – Using common email addresses for teachers to communicate with you is helpful. The same can be said of event calendars.
Lesson 5 – Kids will be kids – This means that children will try to use their parents’ ignorance against them and will attempt to conceal incriminating evidence from parents who are not in the loop.
Source: HuffingtonPost.com, Back to school: Learning to share isn’t just for kids, August 1, 2013
