Navigating Holiday Arrangements: Ensuring Quality Time for Separated Parents During the Festive Season

The October holidays are in full swing for most and the Christmas holidays are just around the corner.  For many families in which parents are no longer living together that means making arrangements in relation to when, where and how the non-resident parent will enjoy contact over the holiday period.  In many cases, parents are able to agree alternative arrangements for holiday.  However, there can be a multitude of reasons that make reaching an agreement difficult- whether that’s a child’s extra-curricular activities during holiday time conflicting with a parent’s work schedule, a child expressing a view that they don’t want to spend their holiday with a particular parent or simply that the relationship between the parents is such that reaching an agreement is just not possible.

Enjoying holiday time with a child without the strictures and pressures of the school routine is an important and enjoyable part of parenting. Where parties can’t agree arrangements we at Gilson Gray can step in to break the deadlock, whether that’s simply writing to the other side to set out your proposal, attending a joint meeting with their solicitor, or in some cases helping you to navigate court proceedings on this issue.