Enforcing Weekday Parenting Time

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Michigan

As part of our Consent Order for Custody and Parenting Time, my child is supposed to have weekday visitation occurring every Wednesday commencing at 6:00pm and terminating by my child being dropped off at school at 7:30am the following morning. Dad is responsible for all transportation.

This weekday parenting time has never been exercised in 13 years. We once went into Court and I brought this issue up and asked to have that section removed (in other words, no weekday parenting time) and that request was not honored. Therefore it is still in our order. I'd now like to have it enforced.

So, do I file a parenting time complaint stating that Dad isn't exercising the time as of the past...(I think the limit is 56 days so perhaps just list those or...?) Or can I Show Cause him without having first filed the Parenting Time complaint as it is no secret this is not being exercised? Or...some other method?

My question is the best way to go about enforcing our order? Thanks in advance for any help.

Simple, you cannot make him exercise his visitation to accommodate your life. If he does not pickup within a half hour, go do your thing.

Although your response did not actually answer my real question, it helped me answer it myself so I thank you.

You cannot compel a parent to exercise parenting time. As you did before, unsuccessfully, you can argue to the custody court that the court should eliminate the unexercised time. As Disagreeable intimates, you can also as the court to set a deadline, such that if the child is not picked up by the scheduled start of parenting time the visit is canceled.

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Quoting Momof13

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My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Michigan

As part of our Consent Order for Custody and Parenting Time, my child is supposed to have weekday visitation occurring every Wednesday commencing at 6:00pm and terminating by my child being dropped off at school at 7:30am the following morning. Dad is responsible for all transportation.

This weekday parenting time has never been exercised in 13 years. We once went into Court and I brought this issue up and asked to have that section removed (in other words, no weekday parenting time) and that request was not honored. Therefore it is still in our order. I'd now like to have it enforced.

So, do I file a parenting time complaint stating that Dad isn't exercising the time as of the past...(I think the limit is 56 days so perhaps just list those or...?) Or can I Show Cause him without having first filed the Parenting Time complaint as it is no secret this is not being exercised? Or...some other method?

My question is the best way to go about enforcing our order? Thanks in advance for any help.

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In light of your other thread, this desire to enforce weekday parenting time makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. What are you hoping to accomplish?

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Quoting llworking

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In light of your other thread, this desire to enforce weekday parenting time makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. What are you hoping to accomplish?

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First, the Family Counseling is working for my son's benefit. Which is great. My son feels the weekly Counseling offers him a safety net as Dad will likely behave and if he doesn't, my son just has to make it out of the weekend until Wednesday evening - Family Counseling night. It's also the night in our parenting plan that Dad is supposed to have him anyway. So why shouldn't he pick him up and drop him off at school the next morning?

I amazes me that I can be show-caused if my son doesn't exercise time with his Dad (because he's a teen and doesn't want to), but anything inconvenient for Dad is just too bad for Mom and there are no consequences whatsoever. What a neat system we have.

Goodwill and decency (or idiocy...it seems) had lead me to formerly ignore things I should have been using to help my son. For instance:

• Dad was allowed to pick up our son at whatever time Fridays was most convenient for him, (our house is on the midway point from his work to home).
• I have been very liberal and reasonable about holiday time, always to my detriment.
• I haven't requested the court enforce medical support which he is supposed to provide.

Basically I've been a pushover.

What I am looking for is bargaining power so that we can re-negotiate some elements of the parenting agreement and force Dad to deal with the sources of our current problems & situation. So for this first weekend my son had a full weekend of parenting time, we are strictly following the parenting plan which means Dad couldn't pick him up until 7pm on Friday rather than 3:30pm which would have been convenient.

The more bargaining power I have by using what is legal, the more help I can be to my son's situation. I told Dad that re-instating a more liberal arrangement was "negotiable" but that what I meant by "negotiable" was that we would lay down specific agreements in writing and submitted to the court. So I'm looking for other legal angles here to push him to start negotiating to my son's benefit.

I think strictly enforcing the legal agreement will be enough to get him to negotiate and in the process eliminate some of the things that have been hurting my son, but was just curious if I had any leverage on this particular point that I hadn't used.

You have no bargaining power.

You cannot force Dad to do a darned thing other than pay child support as ordered.

You need to understand that Dad can turn this around and make your life miserable.

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but was just curious if I had any leverage on this particular point that I hadn't used.

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No, you do not.

The thing with a custody and visitation order? Is to allow the child to have a relationship with both parents, not to force it. Essentially, it's meant to keep the custodial parent from using the child as a pawn in arguments. Obviously, it hasn't stopped you from trying...

As I said to llworking who is familiar with the earlier thread: The Counselor is great and the counseling is working and making my child feel safe and Dad behave. So I guess we will go do this counseling thing every week until my child is 18 since apparently there are no other ways I can protect my child that are able to be written and enforced.

So if this counseling that IS ordered has to continue until my child is 18, so be it! If that's all we have, that's all we have.

I asked a question, you all answered it. Thank you for your replies.

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Quoting Dogmatique

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You have no bargaining power.

You cannot force Dad to do a darned thing other than pay child support as ordered.

You need to understand that Dad can turn this around and make your life miserable.

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Understood. Your advice was trustworthy in the other thread, so I trust it here. As I said above, counseling is working. We'll do that. I'll leave the rest alone. Thanks.

Working with Dad, even if it's a complete pita, is honestly the best thing you can do for your child.

Keep your own nose clean, and your child will eventually understand that you were doing the right thing by her.

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Aw now I get to blush. :)

Thank you. I know it's sometimes frustrating for both the poster and the person responding. But I truly do appreciate that you're pretty much just trying to do the best by your child.