During the process of divorce, one thing to consider is how you plan to handle custody issues regarding your children. One possible plan is to share custody equally between both parents, or under an agreed upon arrangement. This is known as Joint Custody. As a parent in a joint custody arrangement, your relationship with your spouse will continue long past divorce, as long as your children are part of your lives.

Many studies have demonstrated that joint custody arrangements lead to much better compliance in financial child support and greater parental involvement. The challenge for couples however, is to redefine their relationship and learn ways of developing cooperative co-parenting plans based on their shared concerns for their children.

In developing an effective and cooperative co-parenting plan, the following should be considered:

• Recognize the other parent as competent enough to care for the children and have their best interests in mind.
• Recognize that any criticism of the other parent made in the presence of the children is an offense against them and destructive to the well being of the children.
• Be willing to put personal feelings aside when communicating with the other parent regarding the children.
• Put children's need for love, safety and security above own needs.
• Be willing to give the other parent full authority to care for the children while they are in his/her care.

When both parents work hard to meet these challenges, they will experience the benefits of being joint custodial parents. Joint custody means having the peace of mind, that someone that loves your children and has a stake in their well being is caring for them. Statistically, children in joint custody settings have fewer behavioral and emotional problems, higher self-esteem, better family relations and better school performance than children in sole custody situations.

A joint custody arrangement can transform a once flawed relationship into a productive parenting effort where neither person feels that he or she is a single parent. When both parents are available, children enjoy the unique gifts of guidance, discipline, and demonstrated love of each parent.