Graduation season is upon us, which means that children are preparing to start their summer break. Children are often thrilled about this season away from school when they can enjoy the sun, beach, and relaxing. Yet for divorce parents, summertime can be a scary and sometimes frustrating time. Parents often disagree over the summer parenting schedules. Now that your child is not in school and stuck in a schedule, it may be more difficult to enforce parenting schedules. Sometimes one parent may want to take the children on a vacation that interferes with the other parents' time, or the children may ask to stay with Mom another weekend so that they can go to a special fair or concert.
If you are facing stressful summertime custody disputes, we suggest you get a lawyer involved. There is a possibility that you created a definitive summertime custody schedule when you and your spouse finalized your divorce. If so, then you are expected to stick to that schedule religiously. If you do not have a summertime custody schedule, a local divorce attorney can help you to create one. Most families will implement a summertime custody schedule as soon as the kids are out of school. This means that they may start their summertime custody plan earlier than June 21st, the official first day of school.
Sometimes, summertime custody plans allow a noncustodial parent to have the kids for an extended amount of time. If your plan is like this, you may want to talk with a lawyer about whether or not you will have visitation rights while your ex has the children. In some cases this may be acceptable, while other custody plans restrict visitation while the non-custodial spouse is using his or her weeks.
If you have enrolled your children in summer camps, summer activities and other summer commitments, you will want to talk with your ex about how that will interfere with the summertime custody plan. If your spouse refuses to take the children to their activities then you may have to pull them out. It is important to speak with your ex about any summer activities your kids are interested in before you decide to sign them up. That way, you can make sure that your ex is willing to take them to these various activities.
During the summer, you may also want to talk with your attorney about child support payments. If you are a paying spouse and you are caring for the children for the bulk of the summer, you may want to request a stay on payments while you are the temporary primary caretaker. Do not voluntarily stop payments, as this could raise major legal issues. Instead, you will want to discuss changes with an attorney before you choose to implement any of them.
Be very careful if you are planning out-of-state vacations with the children during the summer. You will first want to talk with an attorney and get clearance from your spouse before taking the children to a different state. This is because it is very important that all summertime custody agreements are evaluated. Don't hesitate to contact a lawyer at the firm today if you want more information.
With the right attorney there to help you, you will be able to make sure that you are making wise decisions regarding your child custody plans. Make sure that you have childcare readily available if you will have custody of the children while you are working, and that you adhere to all scheduling drop-offs and pick-ups at the proper place and time. Use this directory today if you want to learn more about summertime custody cases.