If you have ever lost sleep wondering how to keep your children safe during your ex’s parenting time, you are not alone. This is, hands down, the most common parenting time question. Call it parental instinct, loss of control of plain distrust, parents do not like the reality that they cannot be there every minute of parenting time restoring harmony like a graceful dove -- they look like pesky pigeons instead. Nevertheless, you can negotiate a parenting time plan that includes protective provisions. Consider these provisions, which you can enforce in most states with a contempt motion:
For transportation: Each party should be responsible for providing and paying for transportation during that party’s parenting time. If necessary and due to reasonable work schedule conflicts or unavoidable and reasonable personal schedule conflicts, the party may select another properly licensed adult known to the child to provide transportation. The party must personally give advance notice to the other party when possible, and the party will have a first right of refusal to provide transportation instead.
For parenting time pick-up and drop-off delays: Parenting time must be exercised in a prompt manner. If necessary due to an emergency or a reasonable schedule conflict, a thirty minute delay is allowed. The delayed party must personally give advance notice to the other party when possible.
For communicating with your children during parenting time: Each party must provide the other party with a phone contact where the children and the party can be reached at all times during parenting time. The parties may not abuse phone contact privileges but may call the children at reasonable times.
For parenting time modifications: The parties should be encouraged to make arrangements to exchange parenting time to allow the children to attend special events and activities with extended family members and to cooperate with each other to allow the children to spend such other time with the other party as the children desire. However, where applicable for purposes of calculating child support, only ordered overnights will be considered.