Holiday Parenting Time Disputes

With Thanksgiving a few days from now, and Christmas to follow shortly thereafter, tis the season for every family law attorney and Minnesota divorce attorney to start receiving the telephone calls regarding holiday parenting time disputes with their minor children. 

All too common in Minnesota divorce decrees and in Minnesota custody orders, are parenting time schedules that provide loose terms for the parties' holiday time with their minor children. Some orders do not provide for a holiday schedule at all, some simply provide for "alternating holidays," while others provide for specific holidays but not specific times for exchanging the children for holidays.

This is most prevalent for Christmas parenting time when an order provides that "mom shall have the children on Christmas Eve and dad shall have the children on Christmas day." The question then becomes - when does Christmas Eve end and Christmas Day begin? Is it Christmas Eve evening or Christmas Day morning? For most little children, "Santa arrives" sometime overnight on Christmas Eve, prior to Christmas Day morning, so it makes a big difference. Also, many families have traditions on Christmas Eve evening, Christmas Day morning and for a Christmas Day dinner. Not to mention, many families will work in a visit to their church on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Usually, family traditions run deep with regard to where and when these holiday traditions occur. And often times, if the parties are not counseled properly during the divorce or child custody process, these details will not be addressed in the final custody order or divorce decree.

I almost always recommend to my divorce and child custody clients to include an extremely specific and detailed parenting time schedule and holiday schedule to use, if not only as a "default." By this I mean, if the parties get along well now, they can choose to deviate from the specific schedule. However, if the proverbial "push comes to shove" then they have a specific parenting time schedule to default to and there would be no need to make a frantic last minute call to their local family law attorney.

Source: http://blahniklawoffice.com