Holiday Impacts to Alternating Weekends... =(

[rachelle_1980]

What is the name of your state? Texas

Hello,
I've been getting some conflict advice from friends and even a free 10 minute consultation with an attorney didn't really help.

Background:

My ex husband and I divorced back in late January of 2019, we have 50/50 possession with alternating weekends. In odd years he has Thanksgiving and I have Christmas, so in 2019 I had them from Christmas holiday school dismissal up until December 28 (apparently that's pretty common). He now has the children as per the divorce until he drops the kids off to their schools which is this upcoming Monday. 1/6 at which time his possession ends according to the decree.

The point of contention between us is when my weekend with the kids is supposed to start...

The weekend of 1/4 and 1/5 would be mine normally but apparently Holiday possession schedules overrule that so he gets that weekend (it's defined that his possession after Christmas ends when school resumes from the break). My ex husband believes that since his period of possession ends on 1/6 that the weekend on 1/11 is mine as its time to alternate. I believe he's wrong and it's his since he already took my weekend on 1/4 and 1/5. He would basically have an additional week and weekend with the kids.

Our work schedules are very inflexible and he apparently scheduled things with the assumption that my weekend was on 1/11 and would be alternating from that day. I did the same but assumed he would have the 1/11 weekend and based time off around that. One of us has to be wrong but neither one of us have been in this situation and he's not budging.

The attorney examining the paperwork said the decree is unclear (simply states that we have alternating weekends starting on a specific day in February) but that an argument could be made that he "fulfilled his duty" and the alternate weekend is mine since will have had the 1/4 and 1/5 weekend and it's time to alternate as he's no longer in a holiday possession period. They attorney also said normal divorce decrees have language about a "reset" but since once isn't mentioned that cannot be the case, he also said that some decrees state: "If a parent receives two consecutive weekends because of a holiday, that parent shall have the third weekend also" but that language is not in our decree either...

Any ideas here? Thanks!

 

[Just Blue]

I know this is past the time but I wanted to offer my thought in case you run into the same problem next year. To me, because your decree says he will have them until 1/6, the weekend of 1/11 should be your time and then alternate. I definitely understand how holidays can get in the way of your time. And how work can be unforgiving. This is new for you guys and decrees are never specific enough. My guess is that the weekends are going to get messed up every year thanks to school and holidays.

This thread is 2 months old and OP hasn't been back. Please don't post to old threads.

 

[Zigner]

I know this is past the time but I wanted to offer my thought in case you run into the same problem next year. To me, because your decree says he will have them until 1/6, the weekend of 1/11 should be your time and then alternate. I definitely understand how holidays can get in the way of your time. And how work can be unforgiving. This is new for you guys and decrees are never specific enough. My guess is that the weekends are going to get messed up every year thanks to school and holidays.

It doesn't matter how it sounds to you. The wording of the order matters. You don't have the exact wording, so your supposition is useless. My take on this is exactly opposite of yours. A strong(er) argument can be made that the order doesn't state that the alternating weekends change just because a holiday superseded the schedule on the prior weekend.