Does Your Child Have a Contact List? If Not, Start Building One!
Posted October 20th, 2015.
Categories: Custody Tips, Family Law.
These days, it’s not uncommon for parents to have multiple contact lists of their own – on Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other media sites. But do you have such a contact list or address book for each of your children?
If not, you should get to work right away building your child’s address book. Regardless of which online platform you use, be sure to set up a separate account for each child and start building each of their contact lists. The lists should include the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all of the children’s friends and schoolmates as well as their parents. It should include contact information for school advisors, coaches, club sponsors, band directors, the head of the cheerleader squad, and so forth. It should include other contacts outside of the school system too, such as teammates from the Little League, and their parents, as well as coaches; ballet teachers and piano teachers, and the like. Of course, any address book for a child should also include the all of the necessary contact information for doctors, dentists, and other health care specialists.
After you populate the contact list with all of the names that are relevant to your children, be sure to update the list on a regular basis. Be certain to correct outdated addresses and phone numbers, and add helpful notes to each entry. For example, one such note might indicate that your child attended another child’s birthday party at the seashore, and your child won the “best swimmer” contest that day. Such tidbits of information may prove helpful in recalling events in your child’s life and in refreshing your memory when it comes time to take a custody issue to court.
An up-to-date contact list will serve as a valuable list of potential witnesses in a contested child custody case. It will also provide a perfect script of names and notes to prepare you for discussing your children’s interaction with other children and their families.
