Free plan check
Rate your parenting plan against the gold standard.
Twelve questions. At the end you get the exact list of places your plan leaves room for a fight, and what to check in each one.
About three minutes. You do not need the document in front of you.
What the standard means
A plan meets the standard when it still works on the day the other parent stops cooperating.
Most plans read fine at the kitchen table. They fall apart the first time someone decides to be difficult, because the language assumed two people who both wanted it to work.
Times, not days
Christmas is not a plan. December 24 at 6pm to December 26 at noon is a plan.
Numbers, not adjectives
Reasonable notice means whatever the other parent wants it to mean. Thirty days means thirty days.
Deadlines, not requests
If there is no deadline to respond, silence becomes the easiest way to tell you no.
A fallback for every agreement
Every place the plan says the parents shall agree needs a sentence for what happens when they do not.
Where the standard comes from
This is the list my team uses before a plan is finished.
I am Samantha Boss. I am a Certified Divorce Mediator, and my team writes custom parenting plans for high conflict situations. We do it all day long.
The twelve areas below are the same twelve we walk through before we will call a plan done. None of this is theory. It is the checklist, and I am handing it to you so you can run your own plan against it before you sign something you have to live inside for the next ten years.
The twelve areas
What gets checked.
- 01
Holidays
Standard: an exact start time and end time for every holiday, not just which parent gets it.
- 02
Holiday transportation
Standard: who drives, where, and at what time, written into the holiday section itself.
- 03
Summer
Standard: its own schedule. The school year schedule was built around school.
- 04
Vacation
Standard: number of days, notice deadline, and whether vacation can take the other parent's regular time.
- 05
Vague language
Standard: no reasonable, no mutually agreed, no flexible, no good faith, no to be determined later.
- 06
Response deadlines
Standard: a number of hours or days for the other parent to answer, and what happens when it passes.
- 07
Fallbacks
Standard: a written answer for what happens when the other parent says no or says nothing.
- 08
Weekends
Standard: start time, end time, and what happens when a Monday holiday touches your weekend.
- 09
Exchanges
Standard: exact location, exact time, a grace period, and a consequence for late.
- 10
Communication
Standard: one named method, and a definition of what counts as official notice.
- 11
Expenses
Standard: what requires agreement, how it splits, the deadline to pay, and what happens when it is not paid.
- 12
Decisions
Standard: who breaks the tie when the two of you cannot agree on school, medical, or activities.
What you get at the end
A list you can act on, not a score to feel bad about.
- Your open door count, which is the number of places your plan depends on the other parent choosing to cooperate.
- The three gaps costing you the most, with what each one looks like in real life when it fails.
- What to go look for in your own document, section by section.
- A version you can print and take to your attorney, so the questions come from you instead of the meter running while you figure out what to ask.
Before you start
Who this is for.
Run it if
- You have not signed anything yet and you want to know what to fix while fixing it is still free.
- You are in mediation and you need to walk in knowing which sections to hold the line on.
- Your plan is signed and things keep going wrong in the same three places.
- Your attorney handed you a draft and told you it looks standard.
Skip it if
- You are looking for someone to tell you the plan is fine so you can stop thinking about it.
- You want legal advice. This is strategy and education. Your attorney gives you the legal answer.
Questions
Before you click.
Do I need my plan in front of me
No. Answer from memory. If you cannot remember what a section says, choose Not sure, and it counts as an open door. A sentence you cannot recall is a sentence that will not help you when someone refuses to cooperate.
What does it cost
Nothing. You put in your email at the end to see your results and get a copy you can keep.
Is this legal advice
No. It is strategic and educational. It does not create an attorney client relationship and it does not predict what a court will do. Take your results to your attorney and make them explain how each item works in real life.
My plan is already signed. Is this still worth it
Yes. Knowing which sections will not hold changes what you document, what you stop arguing about, and what you would actually ask for if a modification is ever on the table.
What happens with my email
I send your results and follow up with help for the gaps you found. Unsubscribe anytime.
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