Using TalkingParents to Help You Co-Parent a School-Age Child

How to use TalkingParents to manage your child’s custody transitions, school schedules, activities, health matters, expenses, and more.

Posted on October 31, 2022

As your child leaves their toddler years behind, you and your co-parent will begin to face many new situations and challenges. Once your kids reach school-age, they will start to have their own experiences, which may leave you and your co-parent with a lot more to juggle. Luckily, TalkingParents can help you and your co-parent communicate and coordinate regarding your child’s school schedule and activities, health matters, social life, expenses, special moments, and more.

Schedules

As your kids get older, you will have to account for school, activities, and events when making the custody schedule. Your child may also start to form an opinion on how often they want to transition between your home and your co-parent’s home. It’s important to listen to your child about these matters, while being careful not to burden them with any of your co-parenting responsibilities. Some common custody schedules to consider for school-age kids include the alternating weeks schedule, the split week schedule, and the 5-2 schedule. Click here to learn more about each of these custody arrangements.

When managing a school-age child’s schedule, TalkingParents can be a life saver. Our Shared Calendar tool allows you and your co-parent to input the custody arrangement, making it easy to keep track of transition days and times. The Shared Calendar can also be used to keep track of your child’s extracurricular activities and events. You can create single events for one time occurrences like school plays or game days, or repeating events for regularly scheduled transition days, music lessons, and sports practices.

Health matters

Now that your child is in school, they may be required to have certain physical exams or vaccinations. It’s important for you and your co-parent to check with your child’s school and pediatrician regarding these requirements so you can make the necessary appointments in time. If your child is a student-athlete, there may be additional requirements or needs associated with their sport or team, so be sure to ask about that as well. School-age children are also going through many developmental changes, so regular well-checks are recommended.

You and your co-parent can communicate and coordinate all matters related to your child’s health through TalkingParents. The Shared Calendar is the perfect place to record scheduled doctor’s visits, so both parents can stay up to date on which appointments are taking place, when. During or after the visit, co-parents can document any important health information in the Info Library. Here, you can create customizable cards regarding medications, allergies, illnesses, dietary needs or restrictions, and any other crucial health details, so both parents can readily access this information at any time.

Social life

While your child will likely start making friends before they become school-age, this is typically the timeframe when kids truly begin having social lives. Your child may want to participate in after-school activities, attend events, go to friends’ houses after school, and more. This will add a new dynamic for you and your co-parent to coordinate, as your child’s time is already split between two households.

With TalkingParents, co-parents can discuss their child’s upcoming social plans and how they might impact the schedule through Secure Messaging or Accountable Calling. Both methods of communication keep all conversations documented. Once you and your co-parent work out any scheduling changes or additions based on your child’s social life, record them in your Shared Calendar.

Expenses

Parents of school-age children have lots of expenses to account for, from back to school clothes and classroom supplies to field trip fees and extracurricular costs. Co-parents can plan for these expenses by making a list of all anticipated costs, divvying up financial responsibilities, using a shared payments tool, and budgeting for unexpected fees. Learn more about each of these steps here.

The TalkingParents app offers Accountable Payments, a tool designed specifically for co-parents to coordinate expenses. This feature allows you and your co-parent to make payment requests and securely send or receive money, making it easy to manage all your child’s school related costs. All requests and payments are timestamped, so you and your co-parent know exactly what was paid, when. You can also schedule monthly recurring payments for things like music lessons or club fees that occur regularly.

Special moments

When your kids start going to school, moments with your child become more precious than ever, as their time becomes divvied up even further. As a co-parent, you may not be able to be there for every special experience your child has, and that can be one of the hardest parts of sharing custody. From school dances and plays to recitals and sports games, neither you nor your co-parent will want to miss a single thing.

Documenting and sharing special moments with TalkingParents is simple. You and your co-parent can take photos and send them to each other with our Secure Messaging feature. The TalkingParents app also offers Video Calling, so you and your co-parent can call each other as an event plays out or a special moment occurs. Learn more about how video calling helps co-parents here.

TalkingParents is here to help you and your school-age child

Co-parenting a school-age child can be a lot to juggle, but our tools are built to make the journey easier. At the end of the day, you and your co-parent are both working toward the same goal—raising a happy, healthy kid.