Summer Travels and Child Custody

Family vacations are when some of the best memories are made, but for divorced parents, attempting to take one can also be fraught with headache, emotions, and legal battles.

Before you spend your entire summer stuck in a court battle over time sharing rights and shared parenting plans, step back and see if you and your ex can use any of the following strategies to fairly accommodate travel and time sharing arrangements in a way that appeases everyone.

First, review your court-ordered parenting plan – What does your parenting plan look like for the summer months? How do vacation schedules fit into the existing scheduled parenting time plan? Before you start booking travel, it’s important to pause for a moment and consider the parenting plan you have in place. Some agreements have geographical limits, so you wouldn’t want to plan a trip abroad if you kids can’t leave the state or country.

Third, allow your kids to stay in contact with the other parent while on vacation – Just because you’ll be physically away on vacation, doesn’t mean your child should cut off all contact with their other parent. Virtual visitation can be an effective way to maintain contact and relationships even when physically apart. And hey, aren’t we all getting a little better at virtually connecting after all of our social distancing during the coronavirus outbreak?

Vacations should be fun, but when you are in a shared parental responsibility situation, you must also abide by your court orders for shared parenting. At Vasquez de Lara Law Group, our team of experienced family lawyers will help you navigate the legal waters of parental responsibility and time sharing to ensure you can create those fabulous memories on your next summer vacation. Get in touch today.