Prior to being separated from the other parent, what responsibilities have you and the other parent assumed, meaning who gets the child ready for school, who brings the child to school, who helps with homework, who schedules or takes the child to medical and dental appointments and things of that nature.  Also, if the child does extra circular activities; such as sports, music or afterschool clubs; how involved have you been with that aspect of it?

What are the individual needs that you think that your child has and how do you help that child with those needs and what does the other parent do for that? 

What do you think your strengths are as a parent and what do you think that somethings that you could improve on as a parent and doing the same analysis for the other parent?

How do you want ideally to share the different caretaker responsibilities for your children? What do you think the other parent wants for their responsibilities?

If you have more than one child, how do they get along with each other and with the parenting or caretaking rolls?  Do you want to have some time individually with each child; or do you want all the parenting time to be with both?

Have you thought depending on the child’s age, what you think that the children would want, not necessarily ask them, but what their preferences might be in terms of a parenting arrangement and things of that nature prior to involving either litigation or negotiation with the other parent?