Episode 344: Parenting Plans, Support, and Legal Truths with Renee Bauer
The Divorce Survival Guide Podcast
Kate Anthony
4.4 • 573 Ratings
🗓️ 13 November 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode is all about parenting plans, spousal support, and the biggest legal truths people miss when they're divorcing with kids. I'm joined by award-winning divorce attorney and My Next Chapter's legal expert, Renee Bauer, who brings over two decades of family law experience to this conversation.
We get into how courts are shifting toward shared parenting, why some parenting plans need two pages and others need fifty, and the real story behind modern alimony. We also talk about the legal roadmap inside My Next Chapter and why having good information early can save you time, money, and heartache.
✨ If you'd like to watch the video version of this episode, you can find it here.
What you'll hear about in this episode:
- How custody language has shifted from "visitation" to shared parenting and why that shift matters (3:23)
- What happens when someone demands 50/50 but can't follow through (8:18)
- Why parenting plans range from simple to extremely detailed and how to know what level your family needs (25:23)
- How My Next Chapter pulls legal, financial, and emotional guidance together so you're not navigating alone (30:23)
- The big things Renee wishes people understood before hiring a divorce attorney (35:08)
- How alimony has changed in recent years and why lifetime support is rarely on the table anymore (43:08)
Learn more about Renee Bauer: Renee Bauer is an award-winning divorce attorney, published author, and the legal expert at My Next Chapter. As the founder of Happy Even After Family Law in Connecticut, she's spent over two decades helping people navigate divorce with dignity and confidence. Renee is also a sought-after speaker and advocate for reshaping how we think about divorce — not as failure, but as a chance to rewrite your next chapter with intention.
Resources & Links:
Focused Strategy Sessions with Kate
The Divorce Survival Guide Resource Bundle
Phoenix Rising: A Divorce Empowerment Collective
Kate on Instagram
Kate on Facebook
Kate's Substack Newsletter: Divorce Coaching Dispatch
The Divorce Survival Guide Podcast Episodes are also available YouTube!
My Next Chapter - Use code DSG to receive $30 off your first month
Episode 342: From Uncertainty to Clarity with Tamara Frankfort Odinec and Shari Joseph of My Next Chapter
Renee's website
Renee on Instagram
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DISCLAIMER: THE COMMENTARY AND OPINIONS AVAILABLE ON THIS PODCAST ARE FOR INFORMATIONAL AND ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY AND NOT FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROVIDING LEGAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL ADVICE. YOU SHOULD CONTACT AN ATTORNEY, COACH, OR THERAPIST IN YOUR STATE TO OBTAIN ADVICE WITH RESPECT TO ANY PARTICULAR ISSUE OR PROBLEM.
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Episode link: https://kateanthony.com/podcast/episode-344-parenting-plans-support-and-legal-truths-with-renee-bauer/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Don't stay because of the kids. Don't stay because you're waiting for something. If you know it's not going to work, you know. Like you know in your gut that this is not. This is over. It is done. And just pull the band-aid off. It's going to hurt. Now it's going to hurt in 10 years. But at least if you do it now, you have the chance to move forward. Find happiness, finds love, find whatever it is that you're |
| 0:23.0 | looking for. So don't wait. Don't wait for that moment for that perfect timing. It's never going |
| 0:30.0 | to be there. And then when you're in the legal process, the goal should be how do we get out of this? |
| 0:34.2 | Get what you're entitled to. Make sure you're educated and you're not giving everything away, but then let go, which is really, really hard, the resentment, the anger, |
| 0:44.1 | the victimhood. You will never move forward. And the goal really is so that a year after |
| 0:49.8 | your divorce, you can look up and say, wow, I never thought life would be this amazing. |
| 0:57.7 | Welcome to the Divorce Survival Guide podcast, where we have open and honest conversations about |
| 1:04.3 | co-parenting, separation, divorce, and the hardest question of all, should you stay or should |
| 1:10.7 | you go? |
| 1:11.7 | I'm Kate Anthony, your divorce survival guide, |
| 1:15.1 | and I'm here to help you navigate some of the roughest waters you've ever swum in |
| 1:19.3 | and answer some of your toughest questions. |
| 1:22.4 | I've been to hell and back, |
| 1:24.3 | and now it's my mission in life to help you get to the other side of this process |
| 1:29.1 | with your sanity and your heart intact. |
| 1:40.0 | Hey everyone. Welcome back. I am happy to see you all. For those of you who are watching live, for those of you who are listening in, I'm happy you're here. Today I have with me, Renee Bauer. Renée and I have been connected on the socials and in the divorce world for many, many years. And so I'm really excited to |
| 2:03.3 | have her on the show. She is an award-winning divorce attorney. She's a published author. |
| 2:09.5 | She's also the legal expert at My Next Chapter. Now, I did a podcast episode with Tamara and Sherry, who were the founders, the co-founders of my next chapter, |
| 2:21.3 | and I told you all about that. |
| 2:22.6 | We'll link that in the show notes in case you missed it. |
| 2:24.6 | It's a really great platform, and Renee and I will talk about that. |
| 2:28.1 | Renee is also the founder of Happy Even After Family Law in Connecticut, where she has spent over two decades helping people |
... |
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