Many parents enjoy keeping a daily log of the activities they enjoy with their children. This only comes naturally to someone who loves keeping a diary. Other parents, however, never consider how valuable such a journal can be to them and their families. This value is twofold. First, it helps you remember all the wonderful moments you've enjoyed with your children, and second, it could serve as valuable evidence if your parenting contribution is ever challenged in a child custody case.
From a family history perspective, parents are encouraged to record all the things that bring them joy about their children and family within their parenting journals. From a legal perspective, here are the most vital facts to put in your parenting diary that could help you assert your child custody rights and prove you serve as a primary caretaker of your child by sharing the burden of parenting:
- Pickups and drop-offs from school and other activities
- Participation in sports and extracurricular activities
- Hygiene tasks like bathing and diaper changing
- Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack preparation
- Participation in homework and schoolwork
- Attendance at parent-teacher meetings and school open-house nights
- Reading to the children
- Taking the children to museums and for walks in the park
- Playing games with the kids
- Doctors' visits
- Any other child-related activities
When armed with a regularly maintained parenting diary, Texas parents will stand a much better chance of retaining or obtaining child custody rights while litigating a contentious child custody dispute. If you're in the throes of such a dispute, make sure you know your legal rights as a parent and how to defend them.
