Shared Parenting

When parents divorce or simply separate, mothers and fathers decide that in order to retain a strong positive role in parenting their children that they should share the responsibility of parenting. Thus the concept of shared parenting came to be. In this concept when the parents separated or divorced the children spent time living with each of the parent for a period of time

Some parents prefer to share parenting responsibilities equally so that the children get to spend equal amounts of time with each of the parents. In some cases the father may be too tied up with his work especially if he is traveling extensively then the child gets to stay with his father for a shorter period.

But why did this concept come up? Many children reuse to choose with which parent he or she prefers to live with after the parents have separated and there is a breakdown in the family. They do not want to live with one parent all the time and get the opportunity to meet the parent over along period of time. This way in shared parenting the children are given the opportunity to build up and maintain meaningful relationships with both of their parents.

Shared parenting has many advantages to it. It is a concept which dispels the notion that it is only one parent who is caring for the child and that the other parent is not taking an active role in parenting and is absent.

In shared parenting both the parents get the opportunity to share the burden of having to discipline the child. When a child lives only with a single parent throughout after the separation of the parents then only the parent in charge has to shoulder the responsibility of bringing up the child and also disciplining the child. The other parent just has nothing to do with the bringing up of the child. This is not so in shared parenting where both the parents have equal responsibilities to care for the child and shoulder the responsibility of disciplining the child.

In shared parenting the continuation of family life is not broken as the child experiences the nurturing caring and meaningful relationships with both the parents. The children have the reassuring feeling that though their parents are separated and living apart they still have two parents in their lives.

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