One of the more difficult situations to mediate is where two parents are unable agree on anything and can hardly even be in the same room with other; but now have to determine how to parent a rebellious teenager. By rebellious, we are talking about a child whose behavior includes conduct such as skipping school, sneaking out at night, or verbally abusing one or both parents – just to name a few.
Our Florida Supreme Court Certified Mediators at Mediation of Coral Springs, Inc. have found that the biggest hurdle is convincing parents who can’t stand each other to forget about the past and to work together for a change in order to come to a resolution about what is best for their children.
Clearly, it is in the best interest of every child to graduate from high school. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor Statistics for 2017 show that “Full-time workers without a high school diploma had median weekly earnings of $515, compared with $718 for high school graduates (no college) and $1,189 for those with a bachelor’s degree.” These statistics are proof that when parents don’t work together with respect to educational issues and one or both allows a child to be a drop-out, the parent(s) are setting the child up for failure in the future.
Our Florida Supreme Court Certified Mediators at Mediation of Coral Springs, Inc. realize that as children get into their late teens it can be very difficult to “force” a child to comply with rules; it is even more difficult when the child has two households with different rules – especially where one has very lax rules and the other one is strict.
These types of mediations have unique issues which truly need to be resolved in order that all parties can move forward with their lives. Our Florida Supreme Court Certified Mediators have found that in these types of scenarios, it is productive to convince the parents that their animosity towards each other negatively impacts their children. Once the parents understand that they don’t have to like each other in order to properly co-parent their children, only then is it possible to move on to trying to resolve what is behind their child’s rebellious behavior.
It is our experience at Mediation of Coral Springs, Inc. that if the parties can put their differences aside while they are at mediation, they are usually able to come up with a unified plan that is designed to get their children back on track.
Our Florida Supreme Court Certified Mediators can draft a Parenting Plan which contains express provisions about how the parents speak to each other regarding important parenting issues, while keeping in mind that the parents don’t have any desire to speak with each other once their case is final. As stated above, Mediation of Coral Springs, Inc. recognizes that when the two parties put aside their own personal differences and are mainly concerned with the needs of their children, it is the children who are the true winners.