Some parents in North Carolina who are going through a divorce or separation are usually able to agree on a custody arrangement outside of court. Many reach an agreement about child custody through informal negotiations while other parents use more formal mediation or collaborative law processes to settle their issues.
Once an agreement about child custody issues has been reached, parents generally finalize the agreement by creating a document called a parenting agreement. A parenting agreement is a detailed written plan about child custody issues that is personalized for each family’s unique circumstances. In general, a parenting agreement will include information about where children will live, with whom children will spend holidays and birthdays and how major decisions in the children’s lives will be made.