Walk into custody mediation with a written position, your priorities ranked, and the records that back them up. Most mediations fail because one parent arrives with feelings and the other arrives with paper.
The tool prompts you through the standard mediation agenda: residential schedule, holidays, transportation and exchange logistics, decision-making authority, communication rules, expenses, and dispute resolution. For each item you record what you want, what you will accept, and what you cannot agree to.
Mediators move fastest when proposals are child-focused and specific. The tool rewrites grievance-style statements into forward-looking requests, so 'he's always late' becomes a proposed 20-minute grace window with a notification rule.
Pull your exchange log, expense statement, and communication history into a single packet keyed to the agenda items you expect to be disputed. You are not there to prove the other parent wrong; you are there to show that your proposal reflects what has actually been happening.
Record what was agreed and what stayed open while it is fresh, then compare the mediator's memorandum against your notes before signing anything. Educational tool only, review any agreement with your attorney before it becomes an order.
Mediators consistently ask for the same three things: a written proposed schedule with actual dates, a short factual history of what has been happening, and a clear list of what you are flexible on. Arriving with all three shortens the session and makes agreement more likely, because the mediator can work from a document instead of reconstructing your situation from argument.