Keeping kids healthy is an easy choice, right?

Keeping kids healthy is an easy choice, right?

Not so fast

The number one job of a parent is to raise a happy, healthy kid. You already know how hard that is because kids are their own people, making their own choices. Sometimes you can swoop in and catch them – like that time your son fell off a swing – and sometimes, you can’t. You have to do what’s right. Everyone would agree on that.

Except, not everyone agrees on the right way to protect their kids

While you may have a clear, scientifically supported plan for getting your kids vaccinated to keep them safe, other parents oppose such steps. There are hard limits to how you can impact the lives of kids that aren’t yours. You cannot tell another parent what to do.

Increasingly, choosing the right way to protect your kids is becoming a more significant problem with divorced parents. Parents who have disagreements about healthcare choices are now going to court to fight over these issues. These disagreements are creating new strife where there wasn’t any before.

So, what can you do?

Your goal is to keep your child as healthy as possible, and that hasn’t changed. What does keep changing are the guidelines and the needs of schools and daycare centers and the agreements you’ve had in the past. These changes add a great deal of uncertainty and stress.

There is a great chance that you’ve taken the tactic of “following the science” when it comes to your health choices. If you have small children, you’re probably intimately familiar with efficacy rate and health risks. You may have had to make choices you weren’t comfortable with, and that’s unfortunate, but you have every right to pursue your child’s safety.

Making your case and holding your ground

For most co-parents, issues of legal custody are long-settled. You have agreements. You worked on those agreements together, and they’ve held. These new developments create an environment forcing parents to enter a new phase of compromise. However, there are times when a “compromise” may only compromise your children’s health. And that makes things incredibly simple.