Customer designed birthing pools are an emerging choice for divorcing couples who prefer a more hands-on, active role in their child rearing. There is no doubt that family custody mediation can be extremely helpful, but many divorcing couples simply do not want to go through the rigors of court ordered mediation. With a few keystrokes and a bit of help from a software package like Custody Builder, divorcing couples can create their own customized mediation process that meets their unique needs and is as effective as possible.

The key to this process is understanding how the child's needs and desires impact the long-term needs and desires of the child or children involved. In other words, what is the best way for these parents to reach a common goal? It is absolutely critical that parents work out an agreement in which both parents play an active role in the child's life. If family custody mediation fails to accomplish this, then both parents will end up with more of a split than they had in the first place and the child has no way of benefiting from the family custody arrangement as designed.

To help achieve this goal, software that can track actual time spent talking to a family custody mediator as well as actual hours spent talking on a "general" family issues and "ework" issues will prove very helpful. This type of information will allow divorcing parents to easily track the exact amount of time they have spent talking with a family custody mediator. They will also be able to easily compare this information to the time they have spent with their ex in family custody court. This will help them pinpoint exactly where they have failed in their efforts to reach a family custody agreement and develop a plan to correct those mistakes. It is also important that parents stay vigilant when it comes to monitoring how much time they spend talking with their spouse and when they spend time with their child.