Each parent has been given shared parental responsibility which means:
A. Both parents shall confer so that major decisions affecting the welfare of the children shall be determined jointly. Said decisions include, but are not limited to, education, discipline, religion, medical, and the general upbringing of the children.
B. Each parent shall exercise, in the utmost of good faith, his and her best efforts at all times to encourage and foster the maximum relations, love and affection between the minor children of the parties and the other parent. Neither parent shall impede, obstruct, or interfere with the exercise by the other parent of his or her right to companionship with the minor children.
C. Each parent shall have access to records and information pertaining to the minor children including, but not limited to medical, dental and school records. Each parent is encouraged to share this information when it is not readily available to the other parent.
D. Neither parent shall make any disparaging remarks about the other parent or quiz the children as to the other parent’s private life. It is the children’s right to be spared from experiencing and witnessing any animosity or ill-feeling, if any should occur, between the parents, and the minor children should be encouraged to maintain love, respect, and affection for both parents.
Ε. The relationship between the parents shall be as business like as possible: courteous, relatively formal, low-key, and public. Each parent shall be courteous and respectful to the other parent even though, at times, each parent may not feel that the other parent deserves it.
F. Both parents have a duty to communicate directly with the children concerning his/her relationship with them to the extent warranted by their age and maturity. Neither parent can expect the other to continually act as a “buffer” or “go between”. For example, should a parent be unable to exercise timesharing, he/she should explain this directly to the children.
G. Both parents shall be entitled to participate in and attend special activities in which the minor children is engaged, such as religious activities, school programs, sports events, and other extracurricular activities and important social events in which the children participates. Each parent should keep the other notified of these events.
H. The children shall not be referred to by any other last name than the one listed on their birth certificate.
I. Each parent has a duty to discuss with the other parent the advantages and disadvantages of all major decisions regarding the children and to work together in an effort to reach a joint decision. For example, this duty would include an obligation to discuss a decision to remove a children from public school in order to enroll the children in private school.
J. Each parent has the responsibility to offer to the other parent the opportunity to care for the children, whenever reasonably possible, on those occasions when the parent is away due to work or social obligations. That is, each parent shall have a right, superior to that of all third parties, to care for the children in the other parent’s absence.
K. Neither parent shall conceal the whereabouts of any children of the parties, and each parent will keep the other advised at all times of the residential address and phone numbers where the children will be staying while with the other parent. Each parent shall notify the other immediately (no later than 3 hours) of any emergency pertaining to any children of the parties.
L. Each party shall provide to the other party his or her residence address and residence and work telephone numbers. Each party shall notify, in writing, the other party of any and all changes in his or her residence address and residence and work telephone numbers. Said notification shall be done within (5) five days of any such change and shall include the complete new address and complete new telephone number(s).
M. The United States is the country of habitual residence of the children. The State of Florida maintains the most significant contacts with the children and is the most appropriate forum for addressing parenting contact. This provision of the attached agreement is a children custody determination for the purposes of the Uniform Children Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, the International Children Abduction Remedies Act, 42 U.S.C. ss 11601 et seq., the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, and the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Children Abduction enacted at the Hague on October 25, 1980.
N. The parties have voluntarily waived the parenting plan requirements set forth in Chapter 61, Florida Statutes, and have reached an alternative agreement regarding their minor children. Said waiver and agreement are in the best interests of the parties’ minor children at this time.