How Much Of A Problem Is It If You Do Not Follow The Parenting Plan To The Letter?

On the one hand, a parenting plan can be a relief.  During your marriage, you tried everything to get your ex to stop flaking on your plans, but nothing worked.  A court-ordered parenting plan could be just what you need to stop the constant lateness and last-minute changes of plans.  Your anger is not a deterrent to your ex’s flakiness, but contempt of court might be.  On the other hand, a court-ordered parenting plan feels like an invasion of privacy.  How you raise your children should be your business, not the court’s.  Parenting plans can keep the peace, but no court has the power to stop the unexpected from happening.  Following your parenting plan to the letter every day may not be possible, especially not in the face of illnesses, hurricanes, and other disruptions outside everyone’s control.  A few deviations from the parenting plan over the course of your children’s childhood are not the end of the world, but ignoring the instructions of the parenting plan messes up your budget, because the child support order is based on the parenting plan.  A Birmingham child support lawyer can help you if your ex has left you in the lurch by not exercising all of his or her court-ordered parenting time.

Impromptu Changes to the Parenting Plan Only Work If Both Spouses Have Plenty of Room in Their Budget 

Parenting plans, which indicate which overnights during the year the children will spend with which parent, as well as who is responsible for transporting the children from one parent’s house to the other, are not arbitrary.  Most parenting plans are the result of court-ordered mediation, and the judge simply signs off on them.  This means that you and your ex choose what works best for you; you know your work schedules and the traffic around your children’s school better than anyone else does.  When the parents cannot agree on some of the items in the parenting plan, the judge decides, but only after making findings about what is in the children’s best interest.  In practice, judges will only issue a parenting plan if they expect the parents to be able to follow it; parents have the right to petition the court to modify the parenting plan if it creates hardship regarding the parent’s work or family caregiving obligations.

When one parent exercises less parenting time than the parenting plan says, it has financial consequences.  Number of overnights of parenting time is a factor in the child support order.  If the parenting plan gives your ex 120 overnights per year, but your ex only spends 90 nights with the children, then that is 30 days out of the year where your ex is not taking care of the children and not paying child support for you to take care of them.

Contact Peeples Law About Parenting Plan Conflicts 

A Birmingham family law attorney can help you if your ex-spouse is not following your court-ordered parenting plan.  Contact Peeples Law today to schedule a consultation.

Sources:

codes.findlaw.com/al/title-6-civil-practice/al-code-sect-6-5-156-4.html