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 two-fold. 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.