In this short video, I share my tips on how to approach a co-parent when you run into co-parenting conflicts. Maybe it’s over the parenting schedule, a discipline issue, or some aspect of financial support. Before you ever initiate a conversation to discuss a co-parenting conflict, first, it is helpful to make sure you are ready to focus on what is important.
But in the throes of a conflict you may be focused on your anger with the other person, the co-parenting conflict itself, or how you want to see it resolved. With your focus elsewhere, you may fail to focus on what is important in the long term for your co-parenting relationship. Given this reality, what you want now may be quite different from what is important in the long run. So I’ll help you understand the difference between them.
Plus I’ll explain how focusing on what is important vs focusing on what you want will set you up for a more productive exchange with an ex and is far more likely to fuel your long-term happiness. In fact, focusing too much on what you want and not enough on what is important can work against your efforts to resolve your co-parenting conflict. It could even make future interactions with your co-parent more adversarial.
As I demonstrate the difference between focusing on what is important versus focusing on what you want, you’ll gain an understanding of how to define these two things for yourself each time a co-parenting conflict arises.
Finally, I share an easy-to-use set of questions to help you shift your focus from what you want in the short term to what is important to you, your child, and your co-parenting relationship long term.
What do you think? Did you give it a try? Leave a comment to let me know how it went. For more co-parenting conflict resolution advice and other co-parenting insights, check out the rest of my YouTube Channel and share it with someone else who it may help.
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