You have primary custody of your child, and your co-parent legally has visitation rights detailed in your custody and visitation agreement. However, there may be a time when your child is supposed to their parents’ home, but they refuse to or throw a tantrum.
This may cause your co-parent to believe that you caused your child to turn against them. However, you know it wasn’t anything you said or did to influence their opinion. And now you there’s the risk of being penalized by the court for not adhering to the parenting time arrangement. What are your options?
Well, first, you need to find out why your child doesn’t want to visit their other parent. In many cases, there’s a new significant other they don’t like or something simple like their other parent doesn’t have good wi-fi. Whatever the issue is, if it’s not something that is going to affect your child’s safety or well-being, they will need to visit with your co-parent.
No matter how you feel about your co-parent, it’s important that you encourage the visits and work with your co-parent to resolve the issue. When you show you child that you two are united, it can show you child that they can’t play one parent against the other.
Family court judges do consider each child’s preference when making decisions about parenting and visitation rights. A child is generally not allowed to refuse visitation with a parent until they turn 18.
The custodial parent can file a request to change the custody agreement due to the child’s reluctance to visit with their non-custodial parent. However, the court’s decisions will be determined by the best interests of the child. In some situations, these interests aren’t what the child’s desires.
If you have any questions about your custody deal, give Shaffer Family Law a call at (480) 470-3030 today.