ProSeDadinMD
Senior Member
What is the name of your state? Maryland
Here is my response, which has not been sent yet.
I did contact the courthouse yesterday, and was told that the “amended” motion, where I asked for 50/50 has actually been dismissed, but the clerk I spoke with could not tell me why. I will be calling today to ask for a copy of the letter she said had been sent out.Dear Mr. *********:
Thank you for your e-mail of March 6, 2007. Your complaint for 50/50 custody is, of course, already dismissed.
This case will probably resolve with Wednesday overnights going back to my client and you getting more summertime visitation. With that being the case, I would suggest that you contact Ms. ***** and start working on how summer will actually work. For example, will you take a real vacation, or just have ****** living with yourself and ***** and going to day camp or other activities while you stay at home and go back and forth to work each day?
Since ****** is very close to her little sister, and with Ms. ***** the three comprise a very close family unit, I see the court being quite deferential to an arrangement whereby the sisters are not separated just so you can have visitation with her, so much as to allow ****** to maintain a strong relationship with you. This would be especially true if you are not living in the same school district. There is, of course, a big difference between your having time with your daughter for the sake of it and your building a strong relationship with her. Ms. ***** supports the latter, but it is important that you agree that your daughter's home is at Mom's house with ******, and that the time she spends with you is special and privileged.
It is great that she has her own, separate space at your home, which I'm sure you have already arranged, and there is nothing to take away from your relationship with ****** by recognizing her attachment to her mother and sister. If you agree with me on this structural construct for custody and visitation, I think you will find that Ms. ***** is very accommodating to your requests for time with ****** over the summer and that this case will resolve amicably. Please let me know if this threshold issue is something we can approach with like minds.
******* ******
Here is my response, which has not been sent yet.
I am afraid that at the moment, I am letting my anger get the better of me. I don't like the fact that her lawyer has implied that my time with my daughter is a privilege . Is my respose over the top.The only possible change that I would be willing to make, which would be contingent on you providing me with compelling evidence of how or where the Wednesday night overnight is "adversely affecting" ******’s schoolwork(which I have asked for in the past via email, and which has not been provided), or is otherwise not in ******’s best interest, would be a change from every Wednesday night to every other Friday night(so as not to adversely affect said schoolwork, if this is in fact the case), as well as the retention of every other weekends as it stands now, and with the addition of 30 days of uninterrupted parenting time during the summer. I also feel that points 4, 5, 6, and 7 of my proposal dated 3/6/07 are reasonable, and that we would both benefit from these additions.
On the subject of ******’s relationship with her sister, I have consistently done whatever I could to foster a strong relationship between them, as evidenced by the fact that you and I had come to an understanding with regards to the night of weeknight visitation. As I stated in my email of 11/1/2006, “Since "we" have apparently decided that we are following the consent order from May 2002 exclusively, I think that it would be in both of our best interest to return to the correct schedule for weekly overnight visitations, which would be Wednesdays, rather than alternating Tuesdays and Thursdays(per your verbal request). …. I know that we have been doing this in an effort to permit the children to be away the same evening for visitation, and I have no problems with this. But as you have pointed out to me, ***** does not generally pick ****** up for those evenings. That being the case, I feel it would be best to return to overnights every Wednesday in an effort to keep the number of "violations" to our order to a minimum”. I fail to see, and have found no precedent stating such, how fostering a relationship with her sister is considered more important than her fostering a relationship with her father. I also fail to see a legitimate reason why ****** should be penalized by losing time with me simply because ***** fails to accomplish his visitation with ******. That would not be taking ******’s best interest into account.
Again, the only way I would possibly be willing to even consider such a change is if you can provide me the compelling evidence of how an adverse affect, due to the Wednesday overnights. Please let me know what you decide.
******* *********
... want's to eliminate those. My daughter's sister's father doesn't utilize his visitation(Tuesday one week, Thursday the next, and some form of EOW) at all. When he did, we agreed between ourselves to allow both my daughter and her sister to have "visitation"(I'm starting to hate that word) on the same evenings specifically so that they would be together on the other nights. I don't see why, simply because her sister doesn't go on visitation, my daughter and I should be penalized.
