Learning to parent with someone else in North Carolina while living in separate homes is not always easy. In many instances, co-parenting proves downright difficult, but there are certain things you and your child’s other parent might do to improve relations between you. While improving your co-parenting relationship should make your own life easier, doing so is also beneficial for your child.

According to Medical News Today, while co-parenting may prove challenging, it also has the potential to be rewarding. Here are some things you might do to help streamline and improve communications with your child’s other parent.

Create a parenting plan

Having a parenting plan that outlines in writing how you and your ex plan to raise your child may go a long way as far as helping you avoid parenting-related conflicts. A parenting plan typically covers many aspects of child-rearing ranging from which parent has the child and when parents must confer when making decisions about the shared child.

Determine how to communicate

You may also find that you and your child’s other parent get along better if you decide ahead of time what methods of communication to use with one another. For example, if you tend to fight with each other when you talk by phone, consider limiting your communications to texting or emailing. It may also help you avoid conflicts to create a plan for when and how your child communicates with the other parent while staying with you, and vice-versa.

The stronger you and your child’s co-parenting relationship is, the lower the chance of your child experiencing physical, emotional, psychological or behavioral issues later on in life.