The clubs, extracurricular activities and hobbies children have can be an important part of their routine and life but can also be expensive. This is often a worry for parents and often something raised by children when their parents decide to divorce.

Will clubs and hobbies be able to carry on?  How will they be paid for?  These are questions we often discuss with parents in mediation and we will focus on;

·      Do the hobbies or clubs impact the time the child will be able to spend with the other parent and are both parents willing to support those activities?

·      Can the parents afford the costs when taking into account the other costs they will have when living in two separate homes?

Our discussions in mediation need to balance the affordability issue with the impact on the child and impact on the parents.  

Often the amount paid by one parent to the other to support the children is in accordance with the Child Maintenance Service calculations, which are based on a percentage of gross income.  However, this may not be enough to cover the costs of clubs and/or hobbies so we have to consider other options.

Sometimes these extra costs form part of a spousal maintenance calculation, if one parent cannot afford the costs but the other parent can. This is a payment of maintenance from one parent to another parent, separate from the child maintenance payments. Another option is to have a separate agreement about how the payments might be shared between the parents with a process of how parents will address what clubs and hobbies the children do take part in and when.

Mediation can be a helpful way to discuss the options and financial choices. If you would like more information about mediation and how we can help, contact us at hello@familymandm.co.uk or call us on 0800 206 2258 or book a free call with us via our website www.familymediationandmentoring.co.uk