Your marriage may be over, but your family is not acting in your kids’ best interest is your most important priority. It may be helpful to start thinking of your relationship with your ex as a completely new one-one that is entirely about the well-being of your children, and not about either of you. The key to successful co-parenting is to separate the personal relationship with your ex from the co-parenting relationship. With these tips, you can remain calm, stay consistent, and resolve conflicts to make joint custody work and enable your kids to thrive. For the sake of your kids’ well-being, though, it is possible for you to overcome co-parenting challenges and develop a cordial working relationship with your ex. Making shared decisions, interacting with each other at drop-offs, or just speaking to a person you’d rather forget all about can seem like impossible tasks. You may feel concerned about your ex’s parenting abilities, stressed out about child support or other financial issues, feel worn down by conflict, or think you’ll never be able to overcome all the resentments in your relationship. Joint custody arrangements can be exhausting, infuriating, and fraught with stress, especially if you have a contentious relationship with your ex-partner. Of course, putting aside relationship issues, especially after an acrimonious split, to co-parent agreeably is sometimes easier said than done. The quality of the relationship between co-parents can also have a strong influence on the mental and emotional well-being of children, and the incidence of anxiety and depression. Unless your family has faced serious issues such as domestic violence or substance abuse, co-parenting-having both parents play an active role in their children’s daily lives-is the best way to ensure that all your kids’ needs are met and enable them to retain close relationships with both parents. These shared custody tips can help give your children the stability, security, and close relationships with both parents that they need. Parenting Co-Parenting and Joint Custody Tips for Divorced Parents Co-parenting after a separation or divorce is rarely easy.