Non-Custodial Parent Rights

Losing the ability to see your child full-time can be a heart wrenching experience. Most people feel like they have been demoted to a "visitor" rather than a full time parent. Even if you have lost custody of your child or children, you still have rights.

The "parenting plan" or "visitation schedule" in the court order on custody is legally enforceable. As a non custodial parent, issues that should be dealt with in the court order when filing parenting plan forms should include:

• Specific times and dates a child will be in your company
• Holidays that would like to spend with your child
• Limit and forms of contact a child can have with parent outside of physical visits such as phone calls and emails
• Your ability to be a part of your child’s social, sports, and other activities
• Your access to a child’s school information and medical records
• The primary provider of your child’s transportation

Even though a court order is written up, sometimes the custodial parent does not honor it. In this case, you must document all violations of the custody order and of the child support agreement. Once everything is documented, such as lost time with your child and your efforts to reschedule the visits from the child custody visitation schedule or the child parenting plan, you can work with a child visitation attorney to have the order enforced in court for child visitation contempt.

Sometimes it may be necessary to modify the visitation schedules, especially as your children grow and mature. The most common reasons for asking for a modification of the visitation schedule include:

• Alterations in the living arrangement or work patterns of a parent
• The desires and wishes of the child in regards to parental contact
• Change in children’s activities and schedules

Looking out for the best interests of the children should be of number one importance in each parent's mind, but sometimes custody in a divorce can get quite ugly and the children become another aspect of the divorce to fight about. Having court ordered visitation schedules will help ensure that the non-custodial parent rights are kept and visitation is possible even if he/she does not have shared legal custody.