When divorced or separated parents share children together, they often disagree about how much time the children will spend with each parent. Each parent's parenting time is described through a legally binding document called a parenting plan or parenting agreement. Unfortunately, reaching an agreement about the allocation of parenting time and other parenting issues is rarely easy. One common point of contention between co-parents involves the use of babysitters, nannies, and other third-party childcare. If you are an unmarried or divorcing parent, you will want to understand how to maximize your parent time through the "right of first refusal."
What is the Right of First Refusal?
Your parenting plan will include a parenting time schedule describing when the child lives with each parent. For example, a child may live with her father Monday through Thursday and live with her mother Friday through Sunday. The right of first refusal refers to a situation in which a parent cannot fulfill his or her parenting time responsibility. For example, if the mother from the previous example has to work over the weekend, she may not be able to watch the child.
In this case, the father would have the "right of first refusal." This means that he would have the opportunity to watch his child during the mother's absence before the mother can hire a babysitter. Essentially, the father is given the opportunity to accept or refuse the extra time with the child before the mother can look into other childcare options.
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