The Christmas Holiday Period Will Be Shared

Video Transcribed: My name is Brian Jackson, and I am an attorney for men in Tulsa. And today, we’re going to talk about different types of visitation, specifically, types of schedules you can get. What is standard visitation?

In Oklahoma, there’s a couple of different ways that standard visitation is done, but it typically will boil down to alternating weekends, split holidays. Usually, there’s a schedule that’ll take the intermediary holidays and split them in half. And then, typically, Christmas will be shared, and the Christmas holiday period will be shared. You also usually get between three and six weeks during the summer.

I’m going to come out and say I don’t like standard visitation schedules for the simple reason that it is my observation, as someone who practices in this field, that these types of schedules typically lead to alienation, although well-intentioned, they lead to alienation, simply because of absence. The child doesn’t spend enough time with a non-custodial parent, and the result is that they grow distant. I’m personally a big advocate for joint custody on this basis as long as it’s workable. But these are the kind of schedules you can be looking at if you were non-custodial in Oklahoma.

And different counties have different variations on that theme, but that’s typically what you’re looking at. And that’s, as I say, it is a problem. Now, you usually do also get certain other accommodations. And it’s worth noting that when the court orders a visitation schedule, it’s designed to be a floor, not a ceiling.

Now, what do I mean by that? Well, the visitation schedule is the idea of this is the bare minimum that should occur in order for the court to stay out of it. In other words, in order for there not to be contempt proceedings, not to be a motion to enforce, then this is the bare minimum schedule.

Courts will always encourage parents to agree to more and you are free to do so. But that those schedules are a floor. Unfortunately, it’s a very low bar to meet, and there are many cases of custodial parents that take the attitude of this is all you’re getting, and I don’t have to give you any more, so I’m not going to. And the only legal recourse you have in that situation is to go back to court and ask the court to expand visitation. And that may work, that may not work.

Some things that would be work in your favor, though, would be if you are dealing with the situation where the children are growing distant from you, and you raise that early on, that is absolutely a consideration for the best interest of the children.

It is in the best interest of the children, in most instances, that they have a good relationship with both parents. Therefore, if your visitation schedule is leading to your child drifting away from you, then you have a legitimate argument with the court for expanding visitation.

That being said, you may also be dealing with the other side of that blade, which is if the child’s older, and they’re, say, 12 years of age older, the court can take their opinion into account. And in many cases, what you may run into is a child who says, “I don’t want more visitation. I don’t feel close to dad, and I don’t want more visitation,” and that can weigh against you. So, it is, unfortunately, a double-edged sword.

But it is something that is actionable, and you should, if you were facing a situation where your child is becoming alienated due to just a lack of sufficient visitation because of a schedule like that, take it to court, and take it to court quick, and before you get into a situation where it’s been going on for a while.

Because it’s important that if you know alienation is going on, even if it’s unintentional on the part of the mother, you need to get after that fast. The longer it goes on, the worse your problems become. If you are looking for a Men’s Child Custody Lawyer in Tulsa Ok, you should go to dads.law.