HOW DO YOU ARRANGE CONTACT WITH YOUR CHILDREN WHEN YOU ARE WORKING SHIFTS?
Sarah Thompson, Partner at Russell Jones & Walker talks about Police Shift Patters and what happens to contact with children in these cases-
One of the most frequently asked questions our clients who have children ask, is how can they arrange contact when they are working shifts? We tend to find that ex spouse’s who may have understood our client’s shift patterns for years while they were together suddenly suffer amnesia and have no idea how the shifts work once they are separated. We may be being cynical about this but you would be amazed at how many times we receive letters from ex spouse’s Solicitors saying that little Jimmy cannot possibly continue seeing his father on his father’s rest days because his mother has no idea as to when those rest days are and it would therefore be far too confusing for little Jimmy.
It is however important to remember that the children do need a good degree of certainty as it provides them with reassurance and security that they know with which parent they are to be living with and when. We encourage clients to put a chart up in their kitchen with a timetable of when the children are going to be with them and when they are going to be with the other parent. The children often help make these charts and it means that they can look at them and easily remember where they are supposed to be and when. It is important that children are involved in these arrangements; it depends of course on the age of the child as to how involved they are in these arrangements.
It is never a good idea to have young children having a large input into arrangements as it puts an enormous stress and burden on them. You also tend to find that younger children just say what they believe the parent they are with wants them to say and it is far better for the parents to reach an agreement over the arrangements for the younger children and to present it to them as a fate accompli. If you have older children, and there are no set limits for when this should happen, but I tend to find that children grow up tremendously when they move up to senior school and therefore from about 11 onwards children’s wishes and wants should be much more determinative than the wishes and wants of, say, a seven year old. It does of course depend on your own individual child, their age and their level of understanding.
Always remember however that you work for an organisation that is family friendly and if you do need to change shift patterns or your working arrangements due to children, then your employer does have a legal obligation to consider it.
