proud_parent
Senior Member
OK, thinking out loud for a moment...
Dad made a good start by declaring the 5th weekend in May as his school-year vacation time and by notifying Mom within the prescribed time frame. That strengthens his argument that a willful refusal by Mom to provide kiddo for visitation this weekend would be an act of contempt.
I'm curious about this, however:
If Dad has documentation to show that he has made every effort to follow the court order regarding notification AND to accomodate DD's activities / Mom's vacation in chosing his dates, then he may have a case for contempt if he shows up this weekend and Mom refuses. Depending on how Mom answers, it may be sufficient for a finding of contempt, but that's a tough call.
However, there may be other benefits of Dad pursuing a contempt action at this time. First, it demonstrates that Dad is willing to call Mom's bluff and take it to court rather than continuing to allow her carte blanche to approve / deny his proposed parenting time schedules. Second, it may (if Mom is smart) encourage her compliance with the order in the short run until the contempt motion is heard.
Dad made a good start by declaring the 5th weekend in May as his school-year vacation time and by notifying Mom within the prescribed time frame. That strengthens his argument that a willful refusal by Mom to provide kiddo for visitation this weekend would be an act of contempt.
I'm curious about this, however:
If Dad is claiming THIS weekend as his school-year parenting time, what reason did he give for requesting those other times? IIRC, you had another thread discussing the interpretation of the "uninterrupted vacation time" portion of the order, and there was some debate. Did Dad end up interpreting this as two separate vacations of up to one week apiece, and spring break/5th weekend May are the two vacations he chose?Dad hasn't exercised any of the school-year vacation time -- Mom blocked the spring break vacation, another vacation to just p/u DD a few hours early on Fri that would be DH's normal weekend to go to our church's semi-annual conference (saying DD would be beyond upset to miss a soccer game), and I think there was 1 more. Dad has always provided at least 30 days' notice.
If Dad has documentation to show that he has made every effort to follow the court order regarding notification AND to accomodate DD's activities / Mom's vacation in chosing his dates, then he may have a case for contempt if he shows up this weekend and Mom refuses. Depending on how Mom answers, it may be sufficient for a finding of contempt, but that's a tough call.
However, there may be other benefits of Dad pursuing a contempt action at this time. First, it demonstrates that Dad is willing to call Mom's bluff and take it to court rather than continuing to allow her carte blanche to approve / deny his proposed parenting time schedules. Second, it may (if Mom is smart) encourage her compliance with the order in the short run until the contempt motion is heard.