The holiday season can be a stressful time, especially for divorced parents. How do you level the gift-giving playing field?

Shanon Lee, a contributor for DivorcedMoms.com, explained a situation when her ex had given their child a punishment and asked her to cooperate by not getting their son what he wanted — videogames. Wanting to respect those boundaries, Lee got their son books and other things of that nature.

“[My son] ended up getting everything he wanted from his dad so, you know, that wasn’t a cool situation,” Lee told HuffPost Live’s Alyona Minkovski. “I just generally feel like the holidays … [are] not really the time to be vindictive or negative or even try and overcompensate.”

Especially if there is tension between the divorced couple, it can be difficult to increase communication, but Supportpay founder Sheri Attwood said it’s “critical” that parents set a budget beforehand for how much is going to be spent across the households.

“The only people that will be hurt by this is actually the children in the end if you can’t agree,” Attwood said.

Watch the clip above for more advice on how to avoid fighting with your ex and click here to watch the full segment on why divorced parents try to ‘out Santa’ each other.

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