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Family Law Blog

How Does Your Family Celebrate Labor Day?

The three-day weekend of Labor Day is one where families often have mini-vacations, hold barbecues in the back yard, or otherwise relax. Some kids who have just started school enjoy their first Monday holiday, while parents can appreciate a day free from work responsibilities.

Beyond just having an extra day to laze around and enjoy good food, though, have you considered taking the Labor Day celebration a bit further with your family? After all, the holiday was established to highlight the contributions of workers in society. This can apply to families, just as much as it does to the professional arena.

How so?

Consider this: How hard does your family work to stick together, even during tough times? As a parent, you may be working hard at your job to provide enough to make ends meet. Kids may be working hard in school in order to keep their grades up. Or maybe they’re even old enough to have started holding down jobs themselves!
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Help Your Kids Develop Positive Friendships—Now and Forever

Did you know that the first Sunday in August is International Friendship Day? Forming friendships is an invaluable part of a child’s development and can play a vital role in their evolving self-esteem and personal identity from their earliest years into adulthood. Friendships not only help them learn valuable social skills, but it also lays the foundation for trust, environmental awareness, empathy, and being willing to explore beyond the safety of the family unit.

Some children have no difficulty in establishing new friendships wherever they go, while others struggle to make such positive connections. Sometimes this is simply because of a lack of experience, while shyness can also pose a personal obstacle to bridging the gap between them and other children.
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Your Family & Fireworks: The Beautiful, the Dazzling… the Dangerous?

July is upon us, with its heat waves and barbecues and, of course, the Fourth of July! Independence Day is that great mid-summer escape opportunity, inspiring trips to the water park, family picnics, the devouring of many helpless watermelons, and to top it all off—the fireworks shows.

Now, thanks to many of the dry conditions and laws in effect, most areas have a personal fireworks ban in place. So if you and your family want to enjoy fireworks this year, your best bet is one of the many fireworks shows in the area.

A few of the main displays include Big Bay Boom, San Diego SeaWorld’s Into the Blue show, and the Red, White, and BOOM!
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Modifying Your Estate Plan During a Divorce

Divorce can be a complicated and frustrating process. Modifying your estate plan while going through a divorce can complicate things even further, especially if your estate plan is not up to date. It is important to ensure your estate plan is up to date when you are divorcing, because your spouse could inherit under your will or life insurance policy, should you pass away while your divorce is pending and fail to remove your ex-spouse as a beneficiary.

There are certain rules in California that make it tricky to modify your estate plan while going through a divorce. First and foremost, when you start your divorce by filing the dissolution petition and serving your spouse with a summons, an Automatic Temporary Restraining Orders, or “ATROS,” goes into effect. The ATROS automatically impose four rules – by way of California Family Code Section 2040 – that limit a spouse’s ability to change his or her estate plan. Continue Reading

The Importance of Taking Time to Remember

As the country just celebrated Memorial Day Weekend—a time set aside to remember the men and women who have died to protect our nation—we thought it important to look at how traditions and memory-making can positively impact families as well.

Family memories go beyond just recalling good times together, vacations, birthdays, and the like. Lasting family memories can act as an anchor for all family members. Even when families are separated by distance, divorce, death, or other undesirable circumstances, strong memories can keep healthy connections alive and foster greater stability and a sense belonging.

These memories can also be a great way to establish and encourage particular family values that can be passed on to future generations.

So how do you go about being intentional about making family memories? Here are a few ways you can nurture memorable experiences and keep them alive for years to come: Continue Reading

Choosing the Best Summer Camps for Your Kids!

Summer is an exciting time for the whole family in many regards. The kids are out of school, you can spend more time together, the weather is wonderful (depending on where you live, of course), and the possibilities for fun seem endless.

At the same time, summer can pose a challenge for parents seeking ways to satisfy their children’s endless energy and curiosity. That’s why many of them look to summer camps—a seemingly perfect solution for weeks or months of entertainment, ongoing education, and a chance for kids to form new friendships and discover new dreams.

But not all summer camps are created equal! Aside from finding a camp that appeals to your child’s unique interests (astronomy, soccer, business, etc.), it’s important to take the time to determine which one will provide the best investment for the immediate summer experience and their future. Continue Reading