As a general rule, shared custody arrangements don’t change until your family goes to court and requests a modification. However, there are situations in which being more flexible is beneficial for everyone in your family.
For most people, a child coming down with an illness, even something that leaves them miserable like the stomach flu, won’t be adequate grounds to deny the other parent their custodial time or visitation. However, with the rapid spread of coronavirus and COVID-19, parents who share custody may have to make some difficult decisions about how to handle parenting time and isolation in Connecticut while the schools remain closed.
Sharing custody means sharing the decisions
Every person who comes into and out of your house could potentially bring in coronavirus with them. If either you or your ex leave the home frequently for work or other means, especially in retail or medical settings, that could increase your risk of infection or of infecting others.
Particularly if one of you has already made arrangements to stay home with the kids during the closure of the schools, it may be in the best interest of everyone in your family to keep visitation virtual until things settle down. Virtual visitation could involve making a video call or even logging into a server to play video games together despite being in separate locations. Other families may need to keep shared custody arrangements as they are or adjust how the parents split time due to school closures.
Demanding your parenting time, particularly if you have been out in public or your children are at increased risk due to medical conditions like asthma could put your children at unnecessary risk. Although it may not be a pleasant conversation to have with your ex, the two of you may need to get on the same page about how to protect your children during this pandemic.