The Indiana family courts may do their best to try to make workable parenting plans for divorcing couples, but they can only include so many details and considerations in their documents. As a parent going through a divorce, you are uniquely well-informed about the needs of your children and how they have handled the divorce so far.
If you and your ex have found yourself considering divorce mediation, one of the benefits of going through the mediation process would be the ability to create a truly customized parenting plan that will focus on what your kids need.
Take control over the terms of your divorce
The courts have general practices that apply to all divorce proceedings that will limit how much attention and time they spend on certain issues. When your family has special needs or special considerations that influence what will benefit the kids, and the courts may do their best but may fall short of the optimal solution.
If you have children with special needs, if you have multiple children with very different lifestyles or if your family has very difficult scheduling restrictions, mediation could be a way for you and your ex to retain control over the divorce and create a parenting plan that focuses on what will work best for your children, not just what is simplest for the courts.
The ability to spend as much time as is necessary to commit all of the details of a thorough parenting plan to a written agreement is one of the many benefits that mediation offers divorcing parents who want to reduce how hard divorce is for their children.