{"id":5605,"date":"2021-05-19T22:03:28","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T22:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/s37407.p1377.sites.pressdns.com\/resources\/baby-prenup-parenting-contracts\/"},"modified":"2021-05-19T22:03:28","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T22:03:28","slug":"baby-prenup-parenting-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/baby-prenup-parenting-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Baby prenups\u2019 are a thing \u2014 and here\u2019s how parents should split the duties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Modern parents-to-be have figured out a new way to make sure neither parent gets stuck carrying the mental, physical and financial burden of a new baby alone. They&rsquo;re writing &ldquo;baby prenups,&rdquo; and it&rsquo;s honestly a brilliant idea. As celebrity spiritual and life coach Vanessa Petronelli recently explained on &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodmorningamerica.com\/family\/story\/momtroversy-baby-prenups-good-idea-expecting-parents-64086500\">Good Morning America<\/a>,&rdquo; the baby prenup is a written contract intended to outline the duties for each parent in an expectant couple so they know exactly how they&rsquo;re divvying up their new roles as parents.<\/p><h2 dir=\"ltr\">The basics of baby prenup<\/h2><p dir=\"ltr\">A baby prenup might specify:&nbsp;<\/p><ul><li dir=\"ltr\"><p dir=\"ltr\">Who will handle night feedings and diaper changes.<\/p><\/li><li dir=\"ltr\"><p dir=\"ltr\">Who will be responsible for child care drop-offs, grocery shopping, doctor appointments and other chores.<\/p><\/li><li dir=\"ltr\"><p dir=\"ltr\">A clear budget for how much parents plan to contribute to savings accounts, education funds, child care costs and other child-related expenses.<\/p><\/li><\/ul><p>Like every aspect of a new parent&rsquo;s life, though, baby prenups aren&rsquo;t foolproof. Petronelli talked to &ldquo;GMA&rdquo; about the need for flexibility in the contract. &ldquo;What happens if one parent cannot honor their part of the agreement? They&rsquo;re running late coming from work? Or one parent struggles with a mental or physical health challenge?&rdquo; she asked. &ldquo;As with the relationship in general, ongoing communication and understanding is crucial.&rdquo;<\/p><p>Just the act of <a follow=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/stories\/16496\/how-moms-share-parenting-load\/\">talking through all the duties<\/a> and potential problems in order to create a baby prenup could be a positive exercise for new parents &mdash; and one that ends up preventing fights in the future.&nbsp;<\/p><h2 dir=\"ltr\">How moms, especially, can benefit from a baby prenup<\/h2><p dir=\"ltr\">Studies show many families are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/stories\/16332\/working-women-do-more-housework\/\">struggling to find balance<\/a> on their own. Moms are still on the hook for the majority of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewsocialtrends.org\/2015\/11\/04\/raising-kids-and-running-a-household-how-working-parents-share-the-load\/\">household and child care tasks<\/a>, even in households in which both parents work full time. In households where that isn&rsquo;t the case, parents can still struggle with communication, financial stressors, exhaustion and stress.&nbsp;<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">If you&rsquo;re considering a baby prenup, it certainly couldn&rsquo;t hurt to poll some experienced parents, particularly your mom friends, to see what they&rsquo;d write on their own baby prenup.<\/p><h2 dir=\"ltr\">10 must-haves on my fantasy baby prenup<\/h2><p dir=\"ltr\">Based on my almost eight years of parenting small children with a partner, here are some of the baby prenup must-haves I&rsquo;d definitely include if I could go back.<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">1. Mom is entitled to a post-birth meal composed of everything that wasn&rsquo;t allowed during pregnancy. This may include: sushi, a medium-rare steak, specialty French cheeses, a martini and a bucket of espresso.<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">2. Rock, paper, scissors will determine who has to get out of bed at 3 a.m. to find the missing binkie, blanket or stuffed animal. Results are voided if the winning parent gloats.<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">3. Whichever parent did NOT grow a human and give birth is responsible for all late-night diaper and\/or formula runs.&nbsp;<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">OK, OK, I&rsquo;m kidding (sort of). But seriously, folks &hellip; I strongly suggest including these things:<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">4. Diaper-changing duties will be shared equally by both parents.<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">5. Each parent is entitled to one 30-minute shower period per day. Shower must involve hot water, and no babies can be present.<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">6. Both parents will pre-warn the in-laws that unsolicited advice won&rsquo;t be tolerated. Those in violation will be responsible for cleaning up the baby&rsquo;s first diaper explosion.<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">7. Parents shall alternate who has to eat dinner one-handed while standing on nights when the baby refuses to be put down.<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">8. Each parent must take half of the baby gear, figure out how the heck it works and then explain it to the other parent in detail.<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">9. All weekends will be spent taking turns napping for the first year of the baby&rsquo;s life.<\/p><p dir=\"ltr\">10. Parents should be grateful to and supportive of one another, even when they&rsquo;ve both been awake for 19 hours and smell like old spit-up.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Modern parents-to-be have figured out a new way to make sure neither parent gets stuck carrying the mental, physical and financial burden of a new baby alone. They&rsquo;re writing &ldquo;baby prenups,&rdquo; and it&rsquo;s honestly a brilliant idea. As celebrity spiritual and life coach Vanessa Petronelli recently explained on &ldquo;Good Morning America,&rdquo; the baby prenup is <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/baby-prenup-parenting-contracts\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1264,"featured_media":33913,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"enable_toc":false,"care_reviewed_by":0,"care_post_updated_flag":false,"care_updated_date":"","last_update":"2021-05-19","view_count":16148,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"member-type":[3],"vertical":[6,11],"platform":[2],"class_list":["post-5605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","member-type-seeker","vertical-children","vertical-news-trends","platform-resources"],"acf":[],"created":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1264"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5605"},{"taxonomy":"member-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/member-type?post=5605"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=5605"},{"taxonomy":"platform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/platform?post=5605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}