In New Jersey, parenting time schedules are critical components of any divorce involving children. The parenting time schedule, which takes into account the best interests of the children, outlines how parents share time with their children. Most parenting time schedules are comprised of regular parenting time (i.e., the allocation of day-in/day-out parenting time) and holiday/vacation parenting time (i.e., the allocation of parenting time during holidays and/or summer vacations).
There are many different ways to configure regular parenting time and there are several factors that will be considered by a court in determining the allocation of any such regular parenting time, if parents do not agree upon the schedule that they will implement.
Once regular parenting time has been established, a separate holiday/vacation parenting time schedule will be created to allocate holidays and vacation time between the parents. As a general rule, any designated holidays and/or vacation parenting time will take priority over regular parenting time. As for the designation of which specific holidays will be included in a holiday parenting time schedule, that will be a function of which days are deemed significant to the parents and/or the children. And, in addition to identifying the relevant holidays, there must also be a determination of whether to split the holiday or, instead, work out some sort of alternating annual rotation.
Suffice it to say, while there are certain “obvious” secular and religious holidays which will be included in almost every parenting plan, there is no such thing as a “one-size-fits-all” holiday parenting plan and our matrimonial team at Cohn Lifland Pearlman Herrmann & Knopf LLP is sensitive to the needs of each of our clients in trying to achieve an effective and fair parenting schedule for holidays and for regular parenting time as well. We welcome the opportunity to share our experience in this regard.