Better co-parenting leads to happier children

One of the primary challenges when you find a co-parent suddenly restricting, frustrating or stopping contact with your child following divorce or separation, is when you ask to evidence this in family court, to show a pattern of aggressive emails and/or texts.

It can be incredibly frustrating when judges and magistrates refuse to accept them, especially when hostility and intransigence are clear throughout the communications.

There is a simple reason why these are not usually accepted in court. They are easy to fake.

We highly recommend the use of the Our Family Wizard (OFW) tool, for this and many other reasons:

1. Every communication is date / time stamped and cannot be altered later. This provides a consistent record of events to evidence regular breaches of Child Arrangement Orders and it is easy to locate these without having to go back through all your emails and texts.
2. It enables you to block all other forms of communication, so if you are repeatedly sent abusive texts, and constantly berated for any minor infraction – you do not have to read it. Psychological abuse and coercive control is at the heart of severe alienation, and it can wear down the victim parent. This tool makes it harder for the abusive parent to continue playing games.
3. Real-time App messaging – So if there is an emergency, you can reach your co-parent quickly and easily.
4. There is a calendar to confirm when you are due to have your children stay, so there is no confusion about dates/times for collection. You can grant your children free access to this and other features, with built in safeguards to keep their time on OFW child-friendly.  Children need order and continuity to feel secure. They are not able to access any communication between yourself and their co-parent.
5. Third party professionals can access this for free. So, if you have a Family Court Advisor (FCA) undertaking a Section 7 report, or a lawyer or mediator who wants to understand exactly what is happening for your child, you can grant them access. You can also provide limited access to grandparents, step-parents and other childcare workers,
6. Expenses section – here you can upload receipts for any additional purchases and keep them safe all in one place.
7. Information bank – where everything from medical records to child clothing sizes can be kept in one place and updated as and when required.
8. Tonemeter – This monitors your own communication which, often despite extreme provocation, must remain as neutral, professional and factual as possible. If you write anything which could be better phrased, the tonemeter will flag it up to you. It’s a small additional annual cost but worth the investment.
   
   

We have seen some court orders where the enlightened judge has specifically ordered the use of OFW only and forbidden any other form of written communication. We would like to see this in the Recitals for every Child Arrangements Order in the future.