What does year-round access mean?

[pauliz07]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

My husband and his ex wife have recently modified their visitation. They now have an issue with the exact legal definition. My husband has a flexible schedule due to his work and has to give her a copy of his visitation schedule on the first of the month for the next month (December's schedule is due November 1).
He does get three weekends in a five weekend month and two in a four weekend month.

The discrepency is this. In the begining paragraph it states he can never have "three weekends in a row in a five weekend month". Two paragraphs later it states "never more then two weekends in year-round access".

In September he had the last two weekends and then the first weekend of October. His ex picked up their son on the first weekend in October, sighting the "year-round access" sentence. Now with Thanksgiving falling where it did (his year for Thanksgiving, hers for Christmas), my husband again is scheduled for three weekends in a row. She is planning on picking their son up this Friday.

My husband has never scheduled three weekends in a row in a month but in these two cases it has fallen that he gets three in a row. The question then is what is "year-round access"? Does he have to take a holiday that is designated as his as one of his weekends? (In other words you are assigned Thanksgiving this year so one of your two weekends has to be Thanksgiving).

Thank you.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

My husband and his ex wife have recently modified their visitation. They now have an issue with the exact legal definition. My husband has a flexible schedule due to his work and has to give her a copy of his visitation schedule on the first of the month for the next month (December's schedule is due November 1).
He does get three weekends in a five weekend month and two in a four weekend month.

The discrepency is this. In the begining paragraph it states he can never have "three weekends in a row in a five weekend month". Two paragraphs later it states "never more then two weekends in year-round access".

In September he had the last two weekends and then the first weekend of October. His ex picked up their son on the first weekend in October, sighting the "year-round access" sentence. Now with Thanksgiving falling where it did (his year for Thanksgiving, hers for Christmas), my husband again is scheduled for three weekends in a row. She is planning on picking their son up this Friday.

My husband has never scheduled three weekends in a row in a month but in these two cases it has fallen that he gets three in a row. The question then is what is "year-round access"? Does he have to take a holiday that is designated as his as one of his weekends? (In other words you are assigned Thanksgiving this year so one of your two weekends has to be Thanksgiving).

Thank you.

Legally, I am not sure. I would have to read the whole thing, and not just snippets from it to give you any clear advice.

However...morally? Are you saying that because your husband has three weekends in a row, that mom should get no weekends at all because one of them is a holiday that turned out to be dad's? How would dad feel if the roles were reversed?

 

[stealth2]

Additionally, how is holiday access *actually* provided for? Is the access for the holiDAY? Or is the time specified as something along the lines of "Wednesday after school lets out until Sunday at 6pm"?

Contrary to what some may believe, Thanksgiving (for example) does not automatically mean a parent gets a four-day weekend with the kids. Thanksgiving is a one-day holiday. Thursday. If Dad didn't want to use that weekend as one of his, there is likely nothing forcing him to do so. If he CHOOSES to, then he chooses that as one of his weekends.

Suppose Christmas fell on Wednesday - does the parent with access get a five-day weekend as a result? Of course not. The parent gets Christmas DAY.

 

[pauliz07]

"year round access"

The modification says they have standard holidays as per the Texas Family Code, from when school lets out to the Sunday night prior to school starting.
Also the Holidays are addressed in a seperate part of the visitation. I don't know if that makes a difference.

And no I did not mean that if dad gets three weekends, she gets none. If the month is a four weekend month, she gets two and he gets two. The only difference is that instead of him having to take first and third, he gets to flex it (so may have second and third).

His job is a firefighter and he has to work a twenty four hour shift, which is why they agreed to this and was recommended by lawyers on both sides. Prior to that if he had to work on a Saturday and it was his weekend, she would not let him have his son on that weekend at all.

 

[LdiJ]

The modification says they have standard holidays as per the Texas Family Code, from when school lets out to the Sunday night prior to school starting.
Also the Holidays are addressed in a seperate part of the visitation. I don't know if that makes a difference.

And no I did not mean that if dad gets three weekends, she gets none. If the month is a four weekend month, she gets two and he gets two. The only difference is that instead of him having to take first and third, he gets to flex it (so may have second and third).

His job is a firefighter and he has to work a twenty four hour shift, which is why they agreed to this and was recommended by lawyers on both sides. Prior to that if he had to work on a Saturday and it was his weekend, she would not let him have his son on that weekend at all.

Then I am uncertain what your question/concern actually is. He is not supposed to have more than two weekends in a row. Therefore he needs to choose his weekends based on not having more than two in a row.

 

[pauliz07]

The question is how do you interpret "year round access".

His lawyer says because it states in one part of the modification "never three consecutive weekends in a five weekend month" his ex is in contempt for taking his son on his scheduled weekend. His attorney also says because he does not have a standard visitation, my husband does not have year round access.

Her lawyer says because it says "never more then two consecutive weekends in year round access" that he has to always make sure that there are never three in a row, period. That even though he is month to month, he has to consider a yearly schedule, which defeats the purpose of the flex schedule.

Both lawyers are basing their arguments on different parts of the modification. Personally I find that with both of those sentences in the modification, it is vague and up for interpretation.